BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX) was on the move Tuesday after inking letters of intent with three partners, who will take the lead on stockpiling, marketing, and distribution efforts for the company's influenza treatment in four countries. Marketing and distribution will be contingent upon local regulatory approval, but all three partners will immediately begin discussing stockpiling opportunities with the appropriate government officials.

Moksha8 Pharmaceuticals will be BioCryst's representative in Brazil and Mexico, which together account for 75% of the Latin American pharmaceutical market. Meanwhile, NT Pharma Co. is the company's Chinese partner, and Neopharm Group is taking the reins in Israel.

Vical Inc. (NASDAQ: VICL) surged higher out of the gate Thursday after scoring a U.S. patent for its pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccines, including those to shield against H1N1 (swine flu) and H5N1 (avian flu). Both treatments use Vical's patented Vaxfectin adjuvant, which helps to boost immunity.

While the H5N1 vaccine has completed early-stage human trials, the H1N1 vaccine has yet to be tested on human subjects. Positive results have been recorded from tests conducted on mice and rabbits, but VICL said earlier this year that it will require more funding to begin large-scale trials on humans.

In yet another example of how technology and the Internet can, potentially, both increase efficiency and transform business models, Google said it is now testing a new Web tool that's tracking fast-spreading flu outbreaks, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Called Google Flu Trends, Google's philanthropic arm is testing the tool, which developers say may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Times reported.

"It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take 1-2 weeks to collect and release surveillance data, but Google search queries can be automatically counted very quickly," Google said on its official blog, the Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday. For now, the service will track only flu cases in the United States, but Google is hoping to eventually use the technique to track the flu worldwide, The Times reported.

Google, Inc.'s (NYSE: GOOG) shares fell $15.97 to $295.49 Wednesday afternoon amid a broader market sell-off.