BioWorld International articles from August 2002

BioWorld International archives from August 2002

Celltech misses main endpoint in Phase III Crohn's disease trial.
August 7, 2002... LONDON -- Celltech Group plc failed to reach the primary endpoint in Phase III trials of CDP 571, a humanized antibody for the treatment of Crohn's disease, leaving the future of the compound hanging on discussions with regulators to see if...

Elan selling off assets, cutting employees in restructuring plan.
August 7, 2002... DUBLIN, Ireland -- Elan Corp. plc, the debt-laden Irish drug delivery and development company, is setting out its stall as a drug discovery specialist focused on neurology, pain and autoimmune diseases. The Dublin-based company outlined a...

French consortium completes project comparing 67 genomes.
August 7, 2002... PARIS -- A French private-public consortium unveiled the initial results it obtained from the comparison of 67 genomes, which it is making available to the international scientific community. The consortium--composed of the Atomic Energy...

Vernalis, Roche stop Phase I study due to pharmacokinetics.
August 7, 2002... LONDON -- Vernalis Croup plc was forced to stop the clinical development of VR1065, an appetite suppressant being developed in collaboration with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., after it showed an unsatisfactory pharmacokinetic profile in Phase I....

BresaGen news on stem cells overshadowed at conference.
August 7, 2002... SYDNEY, Australia -- BresaGen Ltd. has weighed in on the fierce debate on embryo stem cell research in Australia by announcing that it has used its technology to create dopamine-producing neural cells from human embryo stem cells. The...

MediGene AG's partner in the United States, Atrix Laboratories Inc., of Fort Collins, Colo., received market approval from the FDA for an additional dose of Eligard, its compound for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. (Other News To Note).
August 7, 2002... * MediGene AG's partner in the United States, Atrix Laboratories Inc., of Fort Collins, Colo., received market approval from the FDA for an additional dose of Eligard, its compound for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. MediGene, of...

French officials authorize more field trials of transgenic crops.
August 7, 2002... PARIS -- The French Ministry of Agriculture has authorized another eight field trials of genetically modified crops in 2002, although only three of the applicants have so far gone ahead with experimental plantings. Ali involve GM strains of...

Phytopharm gets rights back to P57 due to merger talks.
August 7, 2002... LONDON -- Botanicals specialist Phytopharm plc said it was to be a beneficiary of the recent proposed takeover of Pharmacia Corp. by Pfizer Inc., announcing Pfizer was taking the appetite suppressant P57 back in-house and giving Phytopharm...

Peptor's DiaPep277 diabetes product licensed By Aventis.
August 14, 2002... JERUSALEM, Israel -- Peptor Ltd. said July 30 it signed a worldwide agreement with Aventis SA, granting it exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Peptor's DiaPep277 drug for the treatment of autoimmune diabetes. Dana Elias, Peptor's...

Cureon raises DKK34m for antisense DNA analogue.
August 14, 2002... Danish firm Cureon A/S, which is developing therapeutic applications of an antisense technology based on DNA analogue chemistry, raised DKK34 million (US$4.5 million) from a consortium of Scandinavian investors, boosting its total funding to...

British Biotech collaborates with GeneSoft in anti-infectives deal.
August 14, 2002... LONDON -- British Biotech plc agreed to collaborate on its anti-infectives program with privately held GeneSoft Inc. for an initial payment of US$4 million, with a further $1 million and an equity stake in GeneSoft to come in October, when the...

Evolutec raises 1.8 million [pounds sterling] in third round of financing.
August 14, 2002... LONDON -- Evolutec Ltd. raised 1.8 million [pounds sterling] (US$2.76 million) in its third-round funding and converted all of its equity into ordinary shares in preparation for a potential listing in the next 12 to 15 months. In its...

Compugen uploads Gencarta database, extends Pfizer deal.
August 14, 2002... JERUSALEM, Israel -- Compugen Ltd. announced last week the availability of the Gencarta database on the web, at the Drug Discovery and Technology conference in Boston. Earlier, Tel Aviv-based Compugen announced the extended collaborative...

ReNeuron Holdings. (Other News To Note).
August 14, 2002... * ReNeuron Holdings, of Surrey, UR, said the European Patent Office granted a patent on the use of hematopoietic cells for transplantation into the brain. The company said the patent provides protection in the use of the technology to treat a...

Phico raises 450,000 [pounds sterling] to begin antibiotic development.
August 14, 2002... LONDON -- Phico Therapeutics Ltd. raised 450,000 [pounds sterling] (US$691,000) from Cambridge Research and Innovation Ltd., Providence Investment Company Ltd., Emblem Technology Partners Ltd. and business angels to commence development of...

Start-up NascaCell's platform speeding drug discovery.
August 14, 2002... MUNICH, Germany -- NascaCell GmbH, a Munich-area start-up, is winning plaudits for its technology that analyzes real-time interactions between two proteins or between a protein and a small molecule. The privately held firm, founded in May...

Pharmos to study Dexanabinol in impairment following surgery.
August 14, 2002... JERUSALEM, Israel -- Pharmos Ltd. is not being put off by its stock market evaluation; rather it is forging ahead into untapped therapeutic markets, the most recent being cognitive impairment following coronary surgery. Patient enrollment...

PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc. (Other News To Note).
August 14, 2002... * PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, of Oxford, UK, saw its stock lose 97 pence to close at 3.27 [pounds sterling] on Monday after it announced it was voluntarily recalling stocks of its BCG tuberculosis vaccine in the UK, following the interim...

NeuroSearch forms venture on drugs for tension headaches.
August 21, 2002... A collaboration between Danish firms NeuroSearch A/S and HeadExplorer ApS, along with Dansk Hovedpinecenter--the Danish Headache Center--at Copenhagen University Hospital, has led to the formation of a new firm, HeadExplorer A/S, which will...

CeNeS spinout Xention focuses on screening of ion channels.
August 21, 2002... LONDON -- A new company, Xention Discovery Ltd., has been formed with 4 million [pounds sterling] (US$6.1 million) of venture capital backing, around ion channel screening technology acquired from CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc. The disposal of...

Pharming spins out ProBio, says restructuring on track.
August 21, 2002... Dutch biotechnology firm Pharming Group NV, which has been in bankruptcy protection for the past year, took another step in its restructuring by spinning out its U.S. technology development and licensing subsidiary, ProBio Inc., via a...

MediGene divesting program in cardiology drug discovery.
August 21, 2002... MUNICH, Germany -- MediGene AG, a publicly traded company based in Martinsried, has decided to spin off its cardiological drug discovery program. The company said the move will allow it to concentrate on its core business and increase the value...

Actelion looks to open up secondary markets for Tracleer.
August 21, 2002... Swiss drugmaker Actelion Ltd. is seeking a second orphan designation for its flagship product, Tracleer (bosentan), having obtained positive safety and efficacy data in a clinical study of scleroderma patients suffering from digital...

Amoebics formed to exploit amoeba's bacteria absorption.
August 21, 2002... LONDON -- Amoebics Ltd., a spinout from Edinburgh University, raised 500,000 [pounds sterling] (US$763,000) in a second-round funding to scale up manufacturing of an antibiotic derived from amoeba and take the compound through animal testing....

Biota Holdings, of Melbourne, Australia, signed an A$6.5 million (US$3.5 million) collaborative deal with GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, to develop treatments for hepatitis C. (Other News To Note).
August 21, 2002... * Biota Holdings, of Melbourne, Australia, signed an A$6.5 million (US$3.5 million) collaborative deal with GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, to develop treatments for hepatitis C. Biota will synthesize nucleosides and use its N-MAX...

Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc, of Melbourn, UK, said it expanded its relationship with the German company Xerion Pharmaceuticals AG, of Martinsried. (Other News To Note).
August 21, 2002... * Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc, of Melbourn, UK, said it expanded its relationship with the German company Xerion Pharmaceuticals AG, of Martinsried, into a research collaboration for target characterization and drug discovery in the...

Children's Hospital. (Other News To Note).
August 21, 2002... * Children's Hospital in Sydney, Australia, said its researchers have linked a variation in one gene with anorexia. The gene regulates the brain chemical norepinephrine, which also has been linked to anxiety and compulsive behavior. But team...

Enact Pharma plc. (Other News To Note).
August 21, 2002... * Enact Pharma plc, of Salisbury, UK, said it filed for a patent on a purer form of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen, which it claims has an improved side-effect profile over existing tamoxifen products, and is now looking for a marketing...

MorphoSys AG, of Munich, Germany, achieved the first milestone in its collaboration with Centocor Corp., a Malvern, Pa.-based subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. (Other News To Note).
August 21, 2002... * MorphoSys AG, of Munich, Germany, achieved the first milestone in its collaboration with Centocor Corp., a Malvern, Pa.-based subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. The goal for MorphoSys was to deliver several antibodies against a target molecule,...

Prince of Wales Hospital. (Other News To Note).
August 21, 2002... * Prince of Wales Hospital researchers at the pancreas transplant unit of the Sydney, Australia, facility have declared that they have been using cells extracted from discarded IVF embryos for some time in their research into human stem cells,...

Vernalis Group plc. (Other News To Note).
August 21, 2002... * Vernalis Group plc, of Wokingham, UK, said the trial investigating the use of frovatriptan in the prevention of menstrual migraine will be completed ahead of schedule and it expects to report summary findings next month. The multicenter trial...

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. (Other News To Note).
August 21, 2002... * Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researcher Louis Schofield, in Melbourne, Australia, has developed a vaccine against malaria that attacks the toxins produced by the malaria, rather than the malaria virus itself. The vaccine's success in a...

Neurotech refocuses on eye diseases, ends French activities.
August 28, 2002... PARIS -- Neurotech SA, a French biotechnology company set up in 1995 to develop cell-based therapies for diseases of the eye and the central nervous system, will focus solely on ophthalmology from now on and has halted its other research and...

European Parliament members displeased by stem cell embargo.
August 28, 2002... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Members of the European Parliament who support stem cell research are angry at what they are calling "a betrayal" by European Union member state governments. They are accusing member states of effectively imposing an...

Antisoma seeks licensing deal due to time frame of Phase III.
August 28, 2002... LONDON -- Antisoma plc said a new independent statistical analysis of the Phase III trial of its lead compound, pemtumomab, predicts the study in ovarian cancer will not reach its completion point of 116 deaths until the second half of 2004....

PPL Therapeutics produces double gene knockout piglets.
August 28, 2002... LONDON -- PPL Therapeutics plc announced further progress in its xenotransplantation program with the birth of double gene knockout piglets, proving that animals without an alpha 1, 3 galactosyl transferase (GT) gene are viable, and paving the...

Medgenics developing Biopump as autologous protein factory.
August 28, 2002... ZICHRON YAAKOV, Israel -- Start-up Medgenics Inc. is reaching its target sum of $10 million in Series B financing, mostly from Israeli-based funds and matching funds by earlier investors led by Jean Deleage, head of San Francisco-based Alta...

Gho Pharma planning pivotal study in children with burns.
August 28, 2002... Dutch firm Gho Pharma BV is planning a pivotal Phase II trial of bis(maltolato)oxovanadium (BMOV) in children with severe burn wounds, following the successful conclusion of a Phase I dose-escalation study in healthy volunteers earlier this...

Actelion Ltd. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * Actelion Ltd., of Allschwil, Switzerland, said it was transferring its listing from the Swiss New Market to the SWX Main Market board as of Sept 9. The drugmaker, which originally floated on the New Market in April 2000, received permission...

Collgard Biopharmaceuticals. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * Collgard Biopharmaceuticals, of Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in Boston and Atlanta, is opening a $10 million to $15 million financing round to finance Phase II trials being carried out with the Mayo Clinic, the U.S. National Cancer...

De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, a specialist in structure-based drug design, announced a collaboration with the Northern Institute for Cancer Research (NICR) at Newcastle University to discover small-molecule inhibitors of the...

Diagnostic Technologies. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * Diagnostic Technologies, a subsidiary of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, has raised $1.25 million from the Puma II investment fund, managed by the Shore Capital Group of Great Britain, for a 25 percent stake in the...

Genzyme Corp. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * Genzyme Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., formally opened new manufacturing facilities in Haverhill, UK, following a 55 million [pounds sterling] (US$84.4 million) expansion. This will allow a tenfold increase in production of Sevelamer, the active...

Huntingdon Life Sciences plc. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * An animal rights activist, Robert Moaby, was sentenced by a court in London to four and a half years in prison for emailing death threats to U.S. financial backers of Huntingdon Life Sciences plc, a contract animal testing company. HLS was...

SkyePharma plc. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * SkyePharma plc, of London, said it opened an office in Osaka, Japan, to further develop drug delivery partnerships in the region. Yuji Kando, formerly with the Pharmaceutical Division of Japan Tobacco Inc., was appointed business development...

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., of Jerusalem, let go 45 percent of its 63-person work force following a $2.4 million second-quarter loss. Remaining workers will suffer a 5 percent to 10 percent pay cut. Keryx says it will now focus on its lead...

Proneuron Biotechnologies. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * Proneuron Biotechnologies, of Nes Ziona, Israel, got FDA approval to continue the recruitment of patients with complete spinal cord breaks for treatment with its experimental macrophage therapy. That follows submission of interim Phase I...

Regma BioTechnologies Ltd. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * Regma BioTechnologies Ltd., of London, which is developing antibiotics based on bacteriophages, will collaborate with the U.S. Navy in the development of diagnostics and therapeutics for the treatment of anthrax. The agreement is with the...

TheraSci Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, entered a drug discovery collaboration with Aquaartis SA, of Nantes, France, under which Aquaartis will screen its library of chemicals isolated from microalgae against central nervous system targets provide by TheraSci. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * TheraSci Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, entered a drug discovery collaboration with Aquaartis SA, of Nantes, France, under which Aquaartis will screen its library of chemicals isolated from microalgae against central nervous system targets provide...

Virax Holdings Ltd. (Other News To Note).
August 28, 2002... * Virax Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, signed an agreement with the New York Blood Center to develop a treatment for hepatitis B infection. The parties hope to use Virax's Co-X-Gene technology to develop a treatment that stimulates the...