Business news briefs

Bayer and Aventis have failed to agree terms on the formation of a biological products joint venture. The intention had been to combine the biological products division of Bayer HealthCare with the Aventis subsidiary Aventis Behring. Both companies reviewed various possible forms of cooperation, but have now agreed not to pursue their plans.

Global clinical research organisation ICON has acquired Medeval Group, a UK clinical pharmacology group providing Phase I and bioanalytical services. ICON is paying an initial consideration of approximately US$15.5m (€14.4m) in cash, with further payments of up to $7m (€6.5m) payable over the next 18 months, subject to the achievement of certain profit targets. The acquisition marks ICON's first entry into this area of research.

Following the successful launch of its Research Consulting Services (RCS), Biacore International has expanded the service to Japan. Like RCS, Japan's Contract Analysis Services (CAS) can provide additional expert SPR resources to research teams where overcapacity issues arise. According to Biacore, these services can deliver rapid, detailed results for one-off projects requiring answers to molecular interaction questions that no single technique can answer.

Evotec OAI's preliminary financial results for 2002 were ahead of expectations with revenues up 10% to €69.5m (2001: €63.2m). According to Dr Dirk Ehlers, chief financial officer, the company demonstrated continuing solid growth despite a challenging market environment.