Factory plan

Plastics-based electronics hardware took a big step forward with the announcement that electronics company Plastic Logic, based in Cambridge, UK, has raised $100 million to build a production plant that will make control circuitry for flexible, plastic displays. The company, founded in 2000 by University of Cambridge physicists, says it will build the plant in Dresden, Germany, by the end of 2008. The technology uses thin-film transistors made of semiconducting plastic substrates.

Viagra verdict

A Beijing court has ruled in favour of Pfizer in a long-running case over counterfeit versions of its anti-impotence drug Viagra. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled on 28 December that two Chinese manufacturers, Beijing Health New Concept Pharmacy and Lianhuan Pharmaceuticals, should stop producing their version of the drug and that the latter should pay the New York-based drug company 300,000 yuan ($38,400) in compensation. The case has been running since 2004, when China's patent review board ruled against Pfizer's patents, and the verdict is viewed as a bellwether of China's readiness to enforce foreign companies' drug patents (see Nature 440, 990; 2006).

Cash at the ready

Codon Devices, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that specializes in DNA engineering, successfully raised $20 million in a second round of financing from venture capital. The new round was led by Highland Capital Partners, one of the United States' largest venture-capital firms. Codon was founded by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004, and is one of the first commercial companies to specialize in the emerging field of synthetic biology.