Johnson & Johnson, looking to catapult itself into the global vaccine market, is in talks to pay $2.3 billion to buy Dutch biotech Crucell. The potential deal may be more proof it was a question of not if, but rather when other successful biotech companies with late-stage products will be bought. The potential deal also signals that J&J is most likely out of that race for Genzyme.

“The bid price on the remaining shares can be considered as a knock-out price and is substantially higher than the analysts’ consensus target price,” one analyst said. *View article*

By Josh Hargreaves

The 2010 U.S. Open, brought to you by The Weather Channel.

They may not be an official sponsor but the weather, everyone’s favorite small-talk subject, has dominated talk of the first week of the Open so much that the conditions are getting more air time than any one company.

It started with searing heat, so much so that the little used Extreme Weather Policy was implemented.  Throw in a few marathon matches, and then the collapse of Victoria Azarenka due in part to the blistering temperatures during her second round match.

Trick shots are nothing new for five-time U.S. Open champ Roger Federer.

With five former champs seeing action on day one, it was a spectacular between the legs shot during the second set of his victory over Argentine baseliner Brian Dabul that will dominate talk around the water cooler this morning.

“I’ve only hit a few in my life and two on center court in night session play here in New York,” Federer told his audience. “It’s amazing to share this moment with you guys. Thanks for the ovation and I love it.”

One happened in Tokyo in 1990, the other in Minnesota in 2009. One marked the beginning of the end for the predominate athlete of his sport, the question now is, did the other also mark the end of dominance for Tiger Woods.

Mike Tyson’s reputation seemed to intimidate opponents before they even stepped into the ring. Before the fight in Tokyo, Tyson was unbeaten as a professional and routinely knocked his foes out in the first round.

In North America sports culture summer is the time for baseball. The MLB season kicks off in early April and for the most part flies under the radar for the first few months as fans’ attention is focused on the NBA playoffs, the NFL draft and to a lesser extend the NHL playoffs.

By the middle of June an NBA champion is crowned, (sorry LeBron, maybe next year with your new team) the NFL is as far removed from the ever watchful media’s eye as it ever is, (thank you Brian Cushing, OTA’s were still a few weeks away) and the NHL playoff run receives unprecedented media coverage…in Canada.

Steve Nash’s swollen right eye. Tim Clark finally tasting victory. The Montreal Canadiens’ continued Cinderella playoff run. Dallas Braden simply being perfect.

The past five days have been a microcosm to why sports are so compelling. It is the dramatic stories that draw fans in, the underdog prevailing against insurmountable odds, that has viewers sitting alone and screaming in ecstasy at the television just as loud as fans in attendance.

When Barry Bonds was playing baseball he seemed to crave attention. He wanted and needed the spotlight to be fixated on him. But like a spoiled child, he did not care if the attention was positive or negative as long as people were talking about him. For Bonds, the negative far outweighed the positive.

Jeff Pearlman, who wrote Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero, sums Bonds up perfectly as “the undisputed president and CEO of the AMSAPS (Arrogant, Mean-Spirited Athletes in Professional Sports) Movement. Inside clubhouses, he scowled at teammates, reporters and club employees as if they were grime beneath his freshly manicured fingernails. On the field, he ignored 99 percent of fans who called his name, desperate for an autograph, a wave or even a simple nod. He treated his personal staffers like cockroaches and his wives like broken appliances.”

The one lingering question that hangs over LeBron James head has nothing to do with his performance on a basketball court. The question fans, the media and even NBA Commissioner David Stern want an answer to is where will James call home next year?

When James signed a three year contract extension in June of ’06,  Cleveland Cavalier fans were banished to LeBron limbo. Every time they delighted in King James on-court magic, the thought of the superstar bolting for another team on July 1st as a free agent brought them back down to earth.

Gilbert Arenas’ guilty plea on Friday to felony gun possession could allow the Washington Wizards to complete their Arenas purge and rid themselves of the remaining $80 million owed to ‘Agent Zero’.

Due to a standard morals clause in NBA contracts, the Wizards may have grounds to void the remainder of the six-year, $111 million contract Arenas signed in the summer of 2008.