Articles

FOOD AND DRINK

Floral Notes, With a Polymer Finish

By Eric Arnold

Source:  Forbes.com; September 15, 2008
http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2008/0915/044.html

Jump to the year 2058. You’re dining at Manhattan’s swank Four Seasons. A sommelier approaches with your choice: a €20,000 bottle of Château d’Yquem, which, to your horror, slips out of his grasp to the floor. But the bottle bounces. Why? It’s made of plastic.

This isn’t as far-fetched as you might think. Debunking the notion that good wines come only in glass bottles sealed with corks, French winemaker Boisset Family Estates is introducing into the U.S. a 750-milliliter polyethylene terephthalate bottle of wine called Yellow Jersey–a chardonnay, a sauvignon blanc, a pinot noir and a merlot, from grapes grown in the Languedoc region of France. Each for $10.

Cheaper, lower-quality wines have been available in bag-in-box packaging of some sort for 40 years. Boisset introduced to North America in late 2005 a 1-liter paperboard carton of higher-quality wine called French Rabbit.

The new plastic bottle is about being green, says Patrick Egan, a Boisset brand manager. Production and distribution of glass wine bottles account for 6.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, or 0.1% of all emissions. You can cram more plastic bottles into a truck because breakproof packaging isn’t needed. The snob factor? Keep in mind that wines in plastic bottles, at least for the near future, will be made quickly, packaged quickly and are meant to be consumed quickly.

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Source:  Forbes.com; September 15, 2008
http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2008/0915/044.html

Copyright 2008 Forbes.com LLC™  All Rights Reserved.

THE TAKE ON PHARMACEUTICALS

Business News

Optimer Pharmaceuticals Awarded Grant from NIH

San Diego, CA

Reported:  January 07, 2008

Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPTR) has been awarded a $1 million annual federal grant which will be applied to the late-stage development of OPT-80 to treat Clostridium difficile-associated Diarrhea (C. difficile), or CDAD.

C. difficile is a bacterial strain that can accumulate in the gut causing severe diarrhea and is potentially more lethal than Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

C. difficile is a major cause of nosocomial (hospital associated) diarrhea worldwide and the CDC estimates it affects as many as 500,000 people each year in the United States alone.

In response to CDAD, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is sponsoring the initiative titled, “New Treatment for C. difficile-Associated Diarrhea (CDAD),” and has awarded Optimer a grant to fund the project. The $1 million grant is renewable each year until August 2010 to a maximum of $3 million over a three year funding period.

CDAD typically develops from the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics that alter normal gastrointestinal (gut) flora, allowing C. difficile to flourish and produce toxins that disrupt the intestinal lining, cause cell death and inflammation with ensuing diarrhea. Approximately 20 percent of treated patients develop single or multiple recurrences of CDAD, which may require repeated hospitalization and persistence of symptoms for years.

OPT-80, formerly known as PAR-101 or Difimicin, is a narrow spectrum antibiotic in development to treat CDAD. OPT-80, which is cidal against (i.e., kills) C. difficile, is unlike the current FDA-approved treatment which only inhibits bacteria growth. OPT-80 has shown selective activity against C. difficile while leaving the healthy intestinal flora intact. This selective activity, while eliminating the infection, may preserve the natural balance of flora in the GI tract.

See:  www.optimerpharma.com

© Copyright 2008 Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

GREEN FUTURES 

Clorox eyes more Green in its Future

By Mark Isaac Thyss, Garden of Healing®

January 6, 2008

Clorox, the company promises, is going green.

Clorox Company, the consumer products giant best known for making bleach, has purchased Burt’s Bees, and plans to turn it into a mainstream American brand sold in big-box stores like Wal-Mart.

As big companies see bigger opportunities in the market for green products, transactions like this $913 million purchase make sense, for Clorox.

From 2000 to 2007, Burt’s Bees’ annual revenue soared to $164 million from $23 million.

Analysts say there is far more growth to be had as consumers keep gravitating toward products that promise organic and environmental benefits.

In the last couple of years, L’Oréal paid $1.4 billion for the Body Shop and Colgate-Palmolive bought 84 percent of Tom’s of Maine, which makes natural toothpaste and deodorant.

But as companies rush to put out more and more “natural,” “organic” or “green” products, consumers and advocacy groups are increasingly questioning the meaning of these labels.

Clorox agreed to buy Burt’s Bees in November of 2007 leaving scores of customers calling Burt’s Bees and accusing the company of selling out.

John Replogle, the chief executive of Burt’s Bees, says “Don’t judge Clorox as much by where they’ve been, as much as where they intend to go.”

Burt’s Bees, a niche company famous for beeswax lip balm, lotions, soaps and shampoos, as well as for its homespun packaging and feel-good, eco-friendly marketing, was founded by Burt Shavitz whose image is still used to peddle the products.

Will Burt’s Bees have a hand in turning Clorox green?

The company’s 380 employees have an opportunity to influence the direction of Clorox, a company that generated $4.8 billion in sales last year and employs 7,800 people.

As a sign of the times, Clorox says it is reshaping its product mix so that more of its products will be eco-friendly by its 100th anniversary in 2013.

© 1996-2008 Mark Isaac Thyss/Garden of Healing®.  All rights reserved.

SCIENCE IN MEDICINE

Nanogen Gains Access to Schizophrenia Markers

July 2007

San Diego

Nanogen, Inc. (Nasdaq: NGEN - News), developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced this month that it has entered into an agreement whereby the company acquired rights to genetic markers related to schizophrenia and responses to antipsychotic therapies. The agreement is between Nanogen and the Co-operative Research Centre for Diagnostics and Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Nanogen plans to utilize the markers to create diagnostic tests for schizophrenia and related conditions. Some of these markers may also help predict adverse drug reactions and therefore guide therapeutic decision-making.

“Schizophrenia affects approximately one percent of the U.S. population, with an estimated cost to the health care system of $63 billion annually,” said David Ludvigson, Nanogen’s president and chief operating officer. “Due to its complexity - schizophrenia, like many mental disorders, is believed to be caused by mutations in multiple genes - development of effective diagnostics and treatments is likely to require multiplexed analytic methods capable of examining multiple genes simultaneously.”

Nanogen’s NanoChip® multiplexing platform was recently submitted for FDA 510(K) clearance, along with the company’s cystic fibrosis carrier screening test.

The genetic component of schizophrenia is thought to account for 65-80% of the disease risk. The markers acquired by Nanogen are in genes that have been linked to schizophrenia in a number of clinical studies.

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About Nanogen, Inc.

Nanogen’s advanced technologies provide researchers, clinicians and physicians worldwide with improved methods and tools to predict, diagnose, and ultimately help treat disease. The company’s products include real-time PCR reagents, the NanoChip® electronic microarray platform and a line of rapid, point-of-care diagnostic tests.

Visit Nanogen’s website at: www.nanogen.com

© 2005-2007 Nanogen, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
Source: Nanogen, Inc.

BUSINESS DIGEST

SEC opens inquiry into Whole Foods CEO online posts: WSJ

By Katherine Hunt
6:22 PM ET Jul 13, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an informal inquiry into online postings by John Mackey, the co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFMI), according to a media report late Friday.

The agency is expected to investigate whether Mackey’s comments contradicted what the company previously said or were overly optimistic, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site, citing people familiar with the matter.

Mackey posted comments about the supermarket chain on Yahoo stock forums using a pseudonym over a roughly eight-year period, the Journal reported. Mackey’s postings became known as the Federal Trade Commission began reviewing Whole Foods’ planned acquisition of Wild Oats Markets Inc., the report said.

Copyright © 2007 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved.

BUSINESS NEWS
 
Groupe Danone bids for Numico Baby-food Business
 
Garden of Healing®
 

Groupe Danone SA yesterday tendered a $16.8 billion offer for nutrition group Royal Numico in a bid to dominate the market for high margin, added-value products.
 
Netherlands-based Royal Numico specializes in baby food and clinical nutrition products under the brand names Nutricia, Milupa, Cow & Gate and Dumex, among others. The company currently employs about 13,000 people.
 
Danone is shifting focus to target growing consumer demand for healthier products. The company also wants to target high growth markets in which it can be a dominant player to offset rising commodity and input costs.
 
The all-cash offer has been accepted by Numico’s board. Danone’s chairman Franck Riboud said acquiring Numico would allow the company to move ahead of its rivals within the competitive marketplace.
 
The addition of Numico would make Danone one of the world’s largest players in the $24 billion baby-food industry. Experts expect this segment to grow 25 percent by 2010.

Riboud said the capture of Numico would allow it to cement its position as a health and nutrition company. Danone expects the acquisition would give it a top three presence in some of the world’s largest markets for nutrition and infant-based products.
 
Riboud cited an aging population, growing awareness of the importance of nutrition to health, and the rising costs of medical care, as the key factors that would continue to drive consumer demand for healthier products.
 
Riboud emphasised that dairy will remain Danone’s key focus. Once the Numico purchase is completed, dairy will account for 51 per cent of the company’s sales. Nutrition will account for another 22 per cent, just behind beverages with a 27 per cent share.
 
Besides sharpening its focus on nutrition, Danone would also increase its presence within the infant food market, where it has a limited presence.
 
Numico also has a strong portfolio in the market for health care nutrition, which Danone said it would move to exploit. The segment would grant the company a further focus for production of foods designed for the needs of babies and diabetic patients.
 
In recent weeks press reports have linked the company to a number of ventures particularly in India’s bottled water market. The company is currently second in the global market for mineral water products behind rival Nestle.

© 2007 Garden of Healing®. All rights reserved.