Leg up

Wyeth reached an agreement with Seattle biotechnology company Trubion to back its development of drugs based on molecules known as small modular immunopharmaceuticals, or SMIPs. The New Jersey drug company will invest $40-million in Trubion immediately, with up to $800 million to follow if certain milestones are met. Wyeth will gain most worldwide rights for marketing drugs developed under the deal, including a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis that is already in phase II trials.

Intel outside

Semiconductor manufacturers announced plans to move their products — and their brand images — into people's living rooms. At a huge consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, Intel and its largest rival, AMD, said that their next generation of chips would serve as the brains of multimedia home entertainment systems. The companies will brand computers containing the chips, and seek to make them compatible with a range of televisions and stereos. Intel's chip is called Viiv (rhymes with ‘five’) and AMD's offering is called AMD Live.

High point

A British pharmaceutical company has won permission from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct phase III trials of a cannabis-based drug for the treatment of cancer pain. The drug, Sativex, which is obtained from cannabis plants grown at an undisclosed location in Britain, has already been approved in Canada for the treatment of pain caused by multiple sclerosis. The US trial will involve 250 people and take up to three years to complete. The Wiltshire-based company, G W Pharmaceuticals, also announced that it had obtained a US$15-million cash infusion from Polygon, an international investment trust.