CytoTools, the holding company of DermaTools Biotech, has a lot riding on DermaTools' wound healing agent DermaPro (diperoxochloric acid), the latter's first product which is now heading towards potential commercialisation.

The dealmaking column is a survey of recent transactions, including strategic alliances, mergers & acquisitions, and financings, in the life sciences industries. Deals are listed by the following industry sectors: in vitro diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and research/analytical instrumentation and reagents. All transactions are excerpted from Elsevier's Strategic Transactions database, providing comprehensive transaction coverage from 1991 to the present.

Pieris ProteoLab was founded in February 2001 to commercialize anticalins, a novel class of antibody mimetics based on a lipocalin scaffold. Due to their molecular architecture, anticalins offer some distinct advantages over antibodies; Pieris will exploit these advantages in developing new drugs for oncology and inflammatory diseases.