Lift Off Or Rip-Off?

Qinetiq, the UK technology company built from the research laboratories of the country's ministry of defence, successfully floated on the London stock exchange on 13 February (see Nature 436, 775; 200510.1038/436775b). Shares in the company closed up 6% on the opening day's trading at £2.12 (US$3.68), valuing the company at £1.3 billion. But the British government has been sharply criticized for its handling of the privatization, under which the Washington-based Carlyle group took a minority stake in the company in 2002 and fattened its value through the acquisition of several US defence contractors, before realizing an eight-fold return on its initial investment of £42 million.

Succession Struggle

SkyePharma's board of directors has ousted the company's founder and chairman, in an attempt to clear the way for the man it earlier this month appointed to succeed him. The board installed Jerry Karabelas, a former chief executive of Novartis' drug division, to replace Ian Gowrie-Smith. However, it must win shareholders' approval of the appointment at an extraordinary general meeting that will be held in the next few weeks. Dissident shareholders in the London-based drug delivery firm are backing Bob Thian, current head of laboratory-supplies company Whatman, for the job.

Avastin Setback

Enrollment in a clinical trial of Genentech's blockbuster cancer drug, Avastin, has been suspended because of non-cancer-related deaths in one group of patients taking the drug. The company said that seven people with early-stage colon cancer, some of them young, died in a group that was taking Avastin in addition to standard chemotherapy; two of these patients died of cardiac causes. In a group of patients on standard chemotherapy alone, four died from non-cancer causes. Sales of Avastin in the United States last year were $1.1 billion.