Stem-cell float

Edinburgh-based research company Stem Cell Sciences says it will seek a listing on London's Alternative Investment Market later this month. The company wants to raise £10 million (US$18 million) by the proposed stock-market float. Stem Cell Sciences, which was founded in 1994 in Australia by biologist Peter Mountford, employs 30 people and has research interests in Japan as well as in Scotland and Australia. If the public offering succeeds, the company will join a small handful of other listed European companies with an interest in stem-cell research.

Change of plan

Genentech, the California biotechnology company, is paying $408 million to take over a pharmaceutical factory left idle as the result of a drug suspension. Biogen Idec of Cambridge, Massachusetts, had planned to produce the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri at its facility in Oceanside, California, but had to withdraw the drug in February because of safety concerns. The company says it is taking a $50-million loss on the sale. Genentech, which has research collaborations with Biogen Idec, says it will start making Avastin — a treatment for colon cancer — at the 430-employee plant in 2007.

Big carbon exchange

Two of Europe's main markets for carbon emissions have announced plans to merge. The combination of Paris-based Powernext Carbon and the European Climate Exchange (ECX), which is based in Amsterdam and does most of its business in London, is expected to create the continent's largest emissions exchange. Analysts expect more consolidation between the half-a-dozen existing exchanges in Europe as trading in carbon dioxide emissions hots up.