 | Box 1
Nature Biotechnology
21, 106 - 107 (2003)
doi:10.1038/nbt0103-106
The Nature Biotechnology 2003 New Year QuizJoe Alper, Aaron Bouchie, Andrew Marshall
& Meeghan Sinclair | | | 
| Answers to quiz
1. Technology Purpose (Nature Biotechnology 20, page numbers as shown)
Knockout pigs Organ transplants. Pigs with the gene,  1,3-galactosyl transferase inactivated bring xenotransplantation closer to reality (251−255).
Protein recycling Potent therapeutics. Protein therapeutics engineered to recycle back to the cell surface have increased potency (908−913).
Transgenic cows Antibody production. Cloned cattle engineered to carry an artificial chromosome produce human antibodies (889−894).
Genome shuffling Acid tolerance. Genome shuffling improves the performance of microbes used for industrial applications (707−712).
Stem cells Rescuing dying cells. A neural stem cell line implanted into a diseased mouse brain rescues dying neurons (1103−1110).
Fiber optic arrays Profiling alternative splicing. A self-assembled bead array of etched fiber-optic bundles allows analysis of alternatively spliced mRNAs (353−358).
2. The companies chosen were the top five in terms of raising money in their particular funding stages. (a) Infinity Pharmaceuticals (Boston, MA) raised $70.0 million; ProSkelia (Paris, France) raised $58.39 million; CancerVax (Carlsbad, CA) raised $55.0 million; Oculex Pharmaceuticals (Sunnyvale, CA) raised $50.0 million, and Synta Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA) raised $49.0 million. (b) ZymoGenetics (Seattle, WA) raised $120.0 million; Dov Pharmaceuticals (Hackensack, NJ) raised $65.0 million; NeuTech Pharma (Manchester, UK) raised $15.25 million; BioDelivery Sciences International (Newark, NJ) raised $10.95 million; and Cobra Bio-Manufacturing (Keele, UK) raised $10.22 million. (c) InterMune (Brisbane, CA) raised $111.0 million; NPS Pharmaceuticals (Salt Lake City, UT) raised $110.17 million; Trimeris (Durham, NC) raised $108.6 million; Amylin Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA) raised $96.6 million; and SangStat Medical (Fremont, CA) raised $77.63 million.
3. DepoMed (Menlo Park, CA) sued Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS; New York, NY) for patent infringement on its oral delivery (Gastric Retention) system. The two companies settled in November, with BMS making a one-time payment of $18 million. Valentis (Burlingame, CA) lost a key patent decision in its suit against ALZA (Mountain View, CA) over the latter company's use of PEGylated liposomes in its Doxil anticancer product. Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA) sued the US Department of Health and Human Services over its decision on Medicare reimbursement rates for its Aranesp anti-anemia product. EntreMed (Rockville, MD) and Celgene (San Diego) have been suing each other over patent issues relating to the antiangiogenesis drug thalidomide. Illumina (San Diego, CA) lost a discrimination lawsuit filed by its former CEO Anthony Czarnik, who claimed he was fired because he suffered from depression.
4. As of November 15, 2002, the next nine companies (in descending order of market cap size) were Teva Pharmaceuticals (Jerusalem, Israel), Serono (Geneva, Switzerland), Gilead Sciences (Foster City, CA), Chiron (Emeryville, CA), Genzyme General (Cambridge, MA), Biogen (Cambridge, MA), MedImmune (Gaithersburg, MD), Biovail (Toronto, CA), and IDEC Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA). On December 31, 2001, five additional companies were in the $5 billion club: Immunex (Seattle, WA); Elan (Dublin, Ireland); Applied Biosystems (Foster City, CA); Shire Pharmaceuticals Group (Basingstoke, UK); and Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA).
5. Wigglesworthia glossinidia, a bacterium that lives in the tsetse fly, may provide clues about sleeping sickness; Leptospira interrogans is a human pathogen that causes jaundice and Weil's disease, among other illnesses; Shigella flexneri produces life-threatening diarrhea in humans; Porphyromonas gingivitis, Streptococcus mutans, and Fusobacterium nucleatum are all found in the human mouth. Porphyromonas gingivitis causes adult gum disease, Streptococcus mutans produces cavities, and Fusobacterium nucleatum, the dominant bacterium in the mouth, is not pathogenic itself, but it does facilitate colonization by Streptococcus mutans.
6. Elan (Dublin, Ireland), Cephalon (West Chester, PA), SkyePharma (London, UK), Immunex (Seattle, WA; later purchased by Amgen), Chiron (Emeryville, CA), and Genentech (S. San Francisco, CA) have all acknowledged using off−balance sheet financing.
7. Ebixa, Hepsera, Neulasta, Remodulin, Xyrem, and Zevalin all received regulatory approvals in 2002.
8. Despite the support of ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, Oregon voters defeated by a 3−1 margin Measure 27, which would have made for mandatory labeling of GM foods.
9. (a) Avi-; (b) Cor-; (c) Bio-; and (d) Epi-
10. Columbia Laboratories is in Aventura, FL; Deltagen is in Redwood City, CA; Eden Biosciences is in Bothell, WA; Eurogene is in London, UK; Galapagos Genomics is in Mechelen, Belgium; Ionian Technologies is in Claremont, CA; and Mojave Therapeutics is in Tarrytown, NY.
11. CPMP is short for Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products; PDUFA is short for Prescription Drug User Fee Act; SBIR is short for Small Business Innovation Research; ODAC stands for Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee; CDER is short for Center for Drug Evaluation and Research; BID is short for Biotechnology Information Database; ASH is short for the American Society of Hematology; EMEA is short for European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products; and TRIPS is short for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property.
12. The domestic short-haired cat, named "Cc:" for "carbon copy", was cloned using nuclear transfer by Genetics Savings and Clone (College Station, TX).
13. (a) 236 companies raised approximately $3.43 billion dollars in 246 venture offerings; (b) 9 companies went public, raising $250.6 million; (c) 18 companies each did one follow-on offering, raising a total of $988.7 million; and (d) 25 companies issued just over $4.6 billion in 27 issuances of convertible debt.
14. (a) Vertex (Cambridge, MA); (b) Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA); (c) NascaCell (Tutzing, Germany); (d) C Sixty (Toronto, Ontario); (e) Nobex (Research Triangle Park, NC); (f) Arcturus (Mountain View, CA); (g) Anadys Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA) is contraction of the Greek words Anatoli ("East") and Dysi ("West").
15. Amgen acquired Immunex; Behrman Capital acquired Athena Diagnostics; Gilead Sciences acquired Triangle Pharmaceutical; Harvard Biosciences acquired Genomic Solutions; Invitrogen acquired InforMax; Roche acquired 10 percent of Antisoma; and Transition Therapeutics acquired Stem Cell Therapeutics.
16. Italian fertility specialist Severino Antinori claimed to be bringing the first cloned human to term this January. He refused to comment on a previous claim made in April 2002 that a woman was eight weeks pregnant with a cloned embryo.
17. From 1996 to 2000, European Union (EU) member states filed only 39% of all EPO biotech patent applications, compared with 45% from the United States. While the percentage increase in patents granted to EU individuals increased 239%, those granted to US-based applicants rose 290% over the decade.
18. Modestly named Alexza Molecular Delivery is Zaffaroni's newest company, joining Alza, Affymax, Affymetrix, DNAX, Maxygen, Surromed, and Symyx.
19. Bioclip marketed a hair-loss injection and collection kit for removing the fleece from sheep. Animals are given a simple shot of an undisclosed natural "defleecing" protein and then they are covered in a giant hairnet. Four weeks later, the wool falls out and is caught in the net.
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