Covance and Merck deal genes; Twitter top blogs for pharma;

> Merck has committed to a five-year $145 million contract to purchase genomic analysis services from contract research organization Covance, which in turn is acquiring the big pharma's Gene Expression Lab, a provider of genotyping, gene sequencing and gene expression profiling. Covance release

> Nine Big Pharma companies have opted for a Twitter corporate presence over a blog. Article

> Salesforce.com is investing in electronic medical records company Practice Fusion. Article

> OmniComm Systems, an electronic data capture company that bought the EDC business of eResearch Technology in June, is now taking over the EDC assets of UK-based clinical software provider Logos Technologies. Report

> IT service provider Blue Star Infotech has implemented its NAV Elixir, a pharma-specific enterprise resource planning solution built on the Microsoft Dynamics product suite, for Indoco Remedies, a formulations and API supplier. Brief