Patent dump

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly thrown out a legislative proposal that would have streamlined the continent's existing patchwork of software patenting rules.

The parliament's 648–14 vote reflected widespread criticism that the proposal would have helped large companies to claim control of software concepts — hurting smaller firms and Europe's powerful open-source software movement (see Nature 435, 411; 200510.1038/435411a).

The vote means that software patents in Europe will continue to be administered by national patent offices.

Exit ionix

A one-time star prospect of the British biotechnology industry has been sold off to a rival firm. Cambridge-based Ionix Pharmaceuticals, whose main drug candidate is an opiate analgesic called IX-1003, was bought by Vernalis for shares worth about £12 million (US$21 million).

Vernalis said it would close Ionix's lab at Cambridge Science Park, with the loss of 19 jobs, and take the company's products and technologies forward itself. Ionix had raised a total of about £24 million in venture capital since its foundation in 2001, but plans for a public offering of its shares never came to fruition.

Vioxx thumbs-up

An advisory panel has told the Canadian health ministry to return the painkiller Vioxx to the market, following its withdrawal last September.

The drug was taken off sale by Merck, its manufacturer, after it was found to increase the risk of heart attacks and stroke. But the Canadian panel, echoing the findings of a US advisory panel in February (see Nature 433, 790; 200510.1038/433790b), ruled that Vioxx's benefits outweighed the risks to patients. Health Canada hasn't yet said what it will do in response to the panel's findings.

The panel also ruled that Pfizer's Celebrex painkiller should stay on sale but that its arthritis product Bextra should remain unavailable. And it highlighted risks associated with established painkillers such as ibuprofen, which it said should only be sold over-the-counter by pharmacists.