BioWorld International articles from March 2003

BioWorld International archives from March 2003

Celltech's attempt to outbid CAT doesn't sit well with OGS officials.
March 5, 2003... LONDON -- Oxford GlycoSciences plc offered an instant rebuff to a cash offer of 101.4 million [pounds sterling] (US$160 million) from Celltech plc, claiming it was a spoiling tactic to undermine the all-paper deal agreed to with Cambridge...

Acambis, Bavarian Nordic vie for lucrative smallpox contract.
March 5, 2003... Last week's decision by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the U.S. to award two MVA smallpox vaccine development contracts could result in a legal skirmish between the two recipients as they battle it out for the main...

`Classic' trial shows substitute for heroin effective vs. placebo.
March 5, 2003... LONDON -- A drug that has been considered as an alternative to methadone can safely and successfully treat people addicted to heroin, a joint Swedish-American study has shown. All patients taking part in the trial were treated with either a...

ExonHit, Allergan enter second alliance around DATAS platform.
March 5, 2003... PARIS -- ExonHit Therapeutics SA and Allergan Inc. entered a drug discovery, development and commercialization collaboration focusing on neurodegenerative diseases, pain and ophthalmology. It calls for Paris-based ExonHit to use its...

NeuroSearch moves NS2330 into Phase II program in Parkinson's.
March 5, 2003... NeuroSearch A/S is moving its candidate CNS drug NS2330 into the first of two large-scale Phase II trials planned this year in patients with Parkinson's disease. The compound initially will be tested in a placebo-controlled, multicenter...

MWG biotech visits Israel to find new opportunities.(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... TEL AVIV, Israel -- Representatives of the German firm MWG Biotech AG met this week and last with a dozen start-ups and incubators, looking to establish business relations in Israel. Thomas Becker, the Ebersberg company's chief financial...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
March 5, 2003... A story on NicOx SA in the Feb. 26, 2003, issue of BioWorld International mistakenly said the company was not consulted by AstraZeneca plc before the latter issued a joint statement on results from a Phase II trial of AZD 3582 in pain. ...

Genomics supercomputing takes center stage at French seminar.
March 5, 2003... PARIS -- A seminar titled "Teraprot, massive computing in genomics" took place at the Genopole, France's national biotechnology science and business park in Evry, last week to review the progress of two proteomics projects. The projects are...

MediWound's burn agent gains orphan status, starts Phase IIb.
March 5, 2003... ZICHRON YA'AKOV, Israel -- Treatment of nearly 300 burn victims with Debrase Gel Dressing engineered from pineapple stems by MediWound Ltd. averted lengthy and painful debridement excisional surgery with dramatically lower mortality, company...

Australian groups in dispute over patent rights to RNAi.
March 5, 2003... SYDNEY, Australia -- Two Australian organizations are battling over the patent rights to the gene-silencing technology called RNA interference that increasingly is being used by biotech researchers around the world. A government industrial...

4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, formalized its collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, to identify novel ligands for drug discovery associated with three unspecified targets. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, formalized its collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, to identify novel ligands for drug discovery associated with three unspecified targets. 4SC will screen a pool of...

Actelion Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, has begun European sales of Zavesca, an oral treatment for Type 1 Gaucher's disease, a rare genetic condition. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Actelion Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, has begun European sales of Zavesca, an oral treatment for Type 1 Gaucher's disease, a rare genetic condition. The drug is a small molecule developed by Oxford GlycoScience plc, of Abingdon, UK, and...

Adprotech Ltd. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Adprotech Ltd., of Saffron Waldon, UK, announced lead product APT070 has entered Phase IIa clinical trials for the prevention of ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury in kidney transplants. APT070 reduces I/R injury by binding to kidney tissue...

AquaPharm Bio-Discovery Ltd. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * AquaPharm Bio-Discovery Ltd., of Edinburgh, UK, won a 50,000 [pounds sterling] ($79,000) government grant to develop its marine drug discovery program. The company specializes in the culturing and fermentation of marine bacteria and fungi as...

Deloitte & Touche withdrew as auditors of the animal testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences plc (HLS) after an intimidating campaign by animal rights protestors. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Deloitte & Touche withdrew as auditors of the animal testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences plc (HLS) after an intimidating campaign by animal rights protestors. John Connolly, Deloitte and Touche's senior partner in the UK, said, "Having...

Genome Express, of Grenoble, France, acquired the Sciclone ALH high-throughput DNA sequencing and analysis technology of Zymark Corp. to speed up its DNA sequencing operations. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Genome Express, of Grenoble, France, acquired the Sciclone ALH high-throughput DNA sequencing and analysis technology of Zymark Corp. to speed up its DNA sequencing operations. Hopkinton, Mass.-based Zymark specializes in automated laboratory...

Meristem Therapeutics. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Meristem Therapeutics, of Clermont-Ferrand, France, appointed Ron Wiseman to the post of U.S. director of commercial development. He will report to Sancha Salgueiro, director of business development at the company's newly created U.S....

Microscience Ltd. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Microscience Ltd., of Wokingham, UK, announced positive results in a U.S. Phase I/II trial of its freeze-dried single-dose oral typhoid vaccine. The study involved 60 healthy adults in a randomized, double-blind, dose-escalation trial. The...

MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, started a collaboration and cross-license agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, under which MorphoSys will have exclusive global rights to develop, produce and market antibodies targeting the ICAM-1 molecule. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, started a collaboration and cross-license agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, under which MorphoSys will have exclusive global rights to develop, produce and market...

NeuroSearch A/S. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * NeuroSearch A/S, of Ballerup, Denmark, said it uncovered a new mechanism for treating incontinence, based on its ongoing ion channel research. It has already identified leads that exhibit "promising efficacy" in animal models of the...

Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA, of Italy, said it moved NW-1029, a sodium channel blocker in development for treatment of pain, into clinical development, following publication of positive preclinical data. These indicate, the company said, that...

Oxford BioMedica plc. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, said it received approval from the UK Gene Therapy Advisory Committee to start a Phase II trial of its cancer gene therapy treatment TroVax in the treatment of colorectal cancer. The trial, which will...

PowderJect Pharmaceuticals. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, of Oxford, UK, said it received approval in Canada for Dukoral, its oral vaccine against cholera and travelers' diarrhea.

Prionics AG. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Prionics AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, said it won a competitive bid to supply 500,000 BSE tests to Italy's three largest testing laboratories. The contract, the largest of its kind in Italy, secures the company's position in the Italian...

Psimei Pharmaceuticals plc. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Psimei Pharmaceuticals plc, of Guildford, UK, said it won a 450,000 [pounds sterling] (US$709,000) government grant to enable it to progress its photon activation therapy (PAT) for treating cancer into clinical trials. PAT involves the use of...

Serono SA, of Geneva, submitted a marketing authorization application for Raptiva (efalizumab) to the European Medicines Evaluation Agency in London for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis. (Other News to Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Serono SA, of Geneva, submitted a marketing authorization application for Raptiva (efalizumab) to the European Medicines Evaluation Agency in London for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis. The EMEA has confirmed that the...

SkyePharma plc. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * SkyePharma plc, of London, said its Biosphere sustained-release injectable technology has been successful in delivering a protein drug over an extended period of time. The company said that in animal studies human growth hormone was...

Xerion Pharmaceuticals AG. (Other News to Note).(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... * Xerion Pharmaceuticals AG, of Martinsried, Germany, acquired exclusive rights to cancer metastases targets that have been discovered as part of ongoing research with Daniel Jay, a professor of physiology at Tufts University in Boston. The...

Astex enters potential $40m deal in Alzheimer's with AstraZeneca.(Brief Article)
March 5, 2003... LONDON -- Astex Technology Ltd. entered a $40 million collaboration with AstraZeneca plc to discover drugs against a key target in Alzheimer's disease. Although the companies did not specify, the target is thought to be beta-amyloid...

`Nucleic acid powerhouse' built by' Cureon, Pantheco merger.
March 12, 2003... Cureon A/S and Pantheco A/S, two Danish firms that specialize in developing antisense drugs based on DNA analogue chemistry, disclosed plans to merge in a stock-based transaction that would create a "nucleic acid powerhouse" focusing initially...

Mice study suggests therapy for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
March 12, 2003... LONDON -- An experimental therapy for people with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that involves infusing humanized monoclonal antibodies into patients' brains might be available within five years, a new study in mice suggests. Researchers who...

NicOx clarifies results from AZD3582 Phase II pain trial.
March 12, 2003... PARIS -- Less than three weeks after asking for the full data file from a Phase II trial of AZD3582 in acute and chronic nociceptive pain, NicOx SA clarified the results after conducting its own preliminary review of the data. AZD3582 is a...

Investor conference attendees discuss biotech's challenges. (European C21 BioInvestor Conference).
March 12, 2003... MUNICH, Germany -- European biotechnology investors looked for breaks in the gloom of both public and private markets--along with signs of the success that many said are crucial for a recovery--at the EC21 BioInvestor Conference in Munich. ...

Irish foundation's support for life sciences nears 200m [euro].
March 12, 2003... DUBLIN, Ireland -- By late spring, Science Foundation Ireland's grant approvals for basic research spending will have reached some 200 million [euro] in less than two years. Late last month, SFI allocated 43.4 million [euro] in research...

Abbott Laboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill., which is partnered with Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc, of Cambridge, UK, said it is expanding the program for Humira, a human monoclonal antibody developed by the companies. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... Abbott Laboratories, of Abbott Park, III., which is partnered with Cambridge Antibody Technology Group pIc, of Cambridge, UK, said it is expanding the program for Humira, a human monoclonal antibody developed by the companies. Humira, which is...

Aeres Biomedical Ltd., of London, said it completed an agreement with Acorda Therapeutics Inc., of New York, generating two recombinant cell lines expressing human antibodies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... Aeres Biomedical Ltd., of London, said it completed an agreement with Acorda Therapeutics Inc., of New York, generating two recombinant cell lines expressing human antibodies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Aeres used its Supervector...

Alizyme plc. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... Alizyme plc, of Cambridge, UK, said it finished recruitment in its Phase IIb trial of ATL-962, a lipase inhibitor for the treatment of obesity. The multicenter trial enrolled 370 clinically obese patients in five European countries and will...

Action still trails ambition in European Biotech backing.
March 12, 2003... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Despite all the repeated pious exhortations from every quarter to give Europe's biotechnology industry the right conditions for growth, the 15-member states that make up the European Union are not yet playing their part. At...

RDI Ltd. launched to build free HIV genotype database.
March 12, 2003... LONDON -- A not-for-profit company called RDI Ltd. was launched to lead an international collaboration to use pharmacogenomics in combating HIV drug resistance and improving the treatment of patients with AIDS. RDI (Resistance Response...

Britain. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Britain will get a chance to have its say on genetically modified crops in a nationwide debate due to take place in May, June and July. The government is putting in 500,000 [pounds sterling] (US$797,000) to fund the debate, including six...

Domantis Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, entered a nonexclusive licensing agreement with ImClone Systems Inc., of New York (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Domantis Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, entered a nonexclusive licensing agreement with ImClone Systems Inc., of New York. The deal enables ImClone to select domain antibodies (dAbs) for therapeutic and research use from Domantis' libraries. Fully...

Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG, of Munich, Germany, is collaborating with the Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf to produce animal models with defined gene alterations. The partners will work together on genes relating to limb development and...

Basilea's antibiotic product receives FDA fast-track title.
March 12, 2003... Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd., the F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. spin-out, gained FDA fast-track designation for its cephalosporin antibiotic, BAL5788, which is entering Phase II trials. The compound, which is in development for treatment of...

Morphochem AG. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Morphochem AG, of Munich, Germany, started a research partnership with the German Research Center for Biotechnology (GBF), of Braunschweig, Germany, to develop cancer treatments based on tubulysins. The compounds are small peptides, which the...

November AG. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * November AG, of Erlangen, Germany, began a partnership with SGS Gruppe Deutschland, of Hamburg, Germany, to develop DNA-based methods to fight product and trademark counterfeiting. November has developed packaging markers that can be scanned...

Oxagen Ltd. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Oxagen Ltd., of Abingdon, UK, said it was awarded a 1.96 million [pounds sterling] (US$3.1 million) grant jointly with the University of Warwick to fund a genome-wide analysis of functional variations in the genes for G protein-coupled...

Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, said that Wyeth, of Madison, NJ., exercised its option for an exclusive license to an Oxford BioMedica antibody against a tumor-associated antigen in all human cancer indications. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, said that Wyeth, of Madison, NJ., exercised its option for an exclusive license to an Oxford BioMedica antibody against a tumor-associated antigen in all human cancer indications. The move triggers an...

Oxford GlycoSciences plc, of Oxford, UK, postponed indefinitely the March 11 extraordinary general meeting "to allow adequate time to explore options for maximizing value," following the rival cash bid to an agreed, all-share takeover offer for the company. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Oxford GlycoSciences plc, of Oxford, UK, postponed indefinitely the March 11 extraordinary general meeting "to allow adequate time to explore options for maximizing value," following the rival cash bid to an agreed, all-share takeover offer...

Prolysis Ltd. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Prolysis Ltd., of Oxford, UK, agreed to a 1.6 million [pounds sterling] (US$2.6 million) collaboration with the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford to develop drugs against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. During...

SR Pharma plc. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * SR Pharma plc, of London, completed a Phase I study of its immune potentiator, AVAC, for the treatment of atopic dermatitis in children. The study was carried out by SR Pharma's partner, Genesis Research and Development Corp. Ltd., of...

Wilex AG. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 12, 2003... * Wilex AG, of Munich, Germany, appointed Paul Bevan head of research and development, also adding him to its executive board. Previously, Bevan was with Henley-On-Thames, UK-based PharmAssociates Ltd., which he founded in 1999. At Wilex, Bevan...

For $55M, OSI gets Novantrone U.S. cancer rights from Serono.(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... PARIS -- Serono SA signed a licensing agreement with OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., granting OSI exclusive rights to market and promote Novantrone in the U.S. in its approved oncology indications. OSI Pharmaceuticals, of Melville, N.Y., is...

OncoGenome Sciences raises 14M [euro] for cancer diagnostics.
March 19, 2003... OncoGenome Sciences BV raised 14 million [euro] in its first financing round to progress its plan to develop a range of genomics-derived clinical testing services and diagnostic kits for the early detection of cancer. The Liege,...

New drugs could flow from bacterial gene cluster variants.
March 19, 2003... LONDON -- Researchers searching for novel antibiotics and other pharmacologically active compounds have shown that it is possible to produce and manipulate a cluster of genes from a species of bacteria that has a reputation for manufacturing...

UroGene second round: 12m [euro] for itself, subsidiary Chrysalon.
March 19, 2003... PARIS -- UroGene SA completed its second round of financing, raising 12 million [euro] from several venture capital funds and private investors. The funding round was led by SGAM, the venture capital arm of Societe Generale, of Paris,...

Riding smallpox contracts, Acambis reports 2002 profit.
March 19, 2003... LONDON -- Flush with revenue from its U.S. government smallpox vaccine contracts, Acambis plc joined the exclusive ranks of profitable UK biotechnology companies, announcing a maiden profit of 9.6 million [pounds sterling] for 2002. The...

EU worries more biotechnology companies could quit Europe.
March 19, 2003... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Two studies released from the European Union last week concluded that legal uncertainty, lack of information and public skepticism about biotechnology are driving biotechnology firms out of Europe. While most Europeans...

Entomed, Naeja enter two-way cancer, infectious diseases deal.(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... PARIS -- Entomed SA, focused on therapeutic compounds based on natural peptides and small molecules derived from insects, signed a two-way screening agreement with Naeja Pharmaceutical Inc. to identify drug targets in cancer and infectious...

Potential OGS buyers, CAT, Celltech, Jockey for position.(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... LONDON -- Oxford GlycoSciences plc withdrew its recommendation that shareholders accept Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc's merger bid, citing the difference in value between CAT's all-share bid and the hostile cash offer of 101.4 million...

CellFactors seeking 3.5m [pounds sterling] to advance, partner Skeletex.
March 19, 2003... London -- Privately-held CellFactors plc is setting out to raise 3.5 million [pounds sterling] from the issue of 70 million new shares at 5 pence per share to advance its Skeletex bone repair product and license it out to orthopedic and dental...

Products, fundamentals find investor favor in down market.
March 19, 2003... MUNICH, Germany -- As European investors and biotechnology companies hope for an upturn in the sector, the key market for pharmaceutical companies remains the U.S. Bernard Gilly, a partner with the venture investment firm Sofinnova...

Epigenomics AG, of Berlin, began a three-year collaboration with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, to develop molecular diagnostic and pharmacogenomic cancer products based on Epigenomics' DNA methylation technologies. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * Epigenomics AG, of Berlin, began a three-year collaboration with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, to develop molecular diagnostic and pharmacogenomic cancer products based on Epigenomics' DNA methylation technologies. The...

Gyros AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, said Fluidigm Corp., of South San Francisco, became the first company to license a patent family that covers the development of certain microfluidic devices based on elastomeric layers. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * Gyros AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, said Fluidigm Corp., of South San Francisco, became the first company to license a patent family that covers the development of certain microfluidic devices based on elastomeric layers. Gyros, which was spun out...

Hybrigenics SA. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * Hybrigenics SA, of Paris, and the Institut Curie cancer center are to receive grants totaling 2.4 million [euro] over three years from the French Ministry of Industry for work connected with the GenHomme project, a research program aimed at...

IntegraGen. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * IntegraGen, of Evry, France, discovered a druggable target in the obesity field. The company said it took less than a year to complete the gene mapping and target identification work. It used its GenomeHIP (Genome Hybrid Identity Profiling)...

NiCox SA. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * NicOx SA, of Sophia-Antipolis, France, said the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., awarded a $3.3 million grant to the University of Michigan to finance a clinical trial of a nitric oxide-donating version of aspirin developed by...

Phytopharm plc. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * Phytopharm plc, of Godmanchester, UK, said it received the first six-months report from its partner, Pfizer Inc., of New York, outlining progress in developing the appetite suppressant P57. A committee has been formed within Pfizer to oversee...

Pierce Biotechnology Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Perbio Science AB, of Helinsborg, Sweden, and Prionics AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, said they expected to launch the Prionics-Check Luminescent Immuno Assay Test Kit for bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the European Union during the second quarter. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * Pierce Biotechnology Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Perbio Science AB, of Helinsborg, Sweden, and Prionics AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, said they expected to launch the Prionics-Check Luminescent Immuno Assay Test Kit for bovine spongiform...

SHAC. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * SHAC, a UK animal activist group, whose name stands for Stop Huntingdon Life Sciences, has sent letters to a number of UK biotechnology companies. The letters ask companies to detail any links with Huntingdon Life Sciences plc, the animal...

EU's research department. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * The EU's research department said Germany, the UK and France are the biggest European spenders on biotechnology research in terms of state funding, according to new figures released last week. The EU's member states altogether poured 9.6...

UK House of Lords. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * The UK House of Lords gave its approval for the use of cloning to produce human embryos as a source of stem cells for research in the UK. The house last week rejected a legal challenge by an anti-abortion group, the Pro-Life Alliance, to...

UK government. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 19, 2003... * The UK government has launched i-biouk, a web portal for the biotechnology industry, as part of its overall electronic government program. The portal, which has 500,000 [pounds sterling] of government funding, provides a single point of...

British Biotech, RiboTargets plan merger despite reduced valuation.
March 26, 2003... LONDON -- After two years of searching, British Biotech plc finally landed a merger partner, privately held RiboTargets Holdings plc, a structure-based drug discovery specialist that brings 19 million [pounds sterling] (US$30 million) to add to...

Study elucidates neural networks of the spinal cord in mammals.
March 26, 2003... LONDON -- Scientists now have a molecular marker for the neural networks in the spinal cord that coordinate repetitive movements such as walking--and allows able-bodied people to run downstairs while thinking about something completely...

Cellzome lands 30M [euro] financing for programs in drug discovery.
March 26, 2003... MUNICH, Germany -- Cellzome AG bucked the gloomy venture market and raised 30 million [euro] in its third round of financing. The company, spun off from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg in May 2000, aims to speed and...

Ingenium, Elan collaborate to develop drugs to manage pain.
March 26, 2003... MUNICH, Germany -- Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG entered a partnership with Elan Corp. plc to develop novel treatments for pain management. The companies will jointly fund a four-year research program, estimated at $10 million in total, which...

Gamida-Cell, Teva enter deal to develop stem cell product.
March 26, 2003... JERUSALEM -- Gamida-Cell Ltd. is the recipient of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s first investment in stem cell technology. Gamida-Cell, of Jerusalem, disclosed earlier this month a strategic agreement with Teva, also of Jerusalem,...

Biovitrum moves diabetes drug into controlled Phase II study.(Brief Article)
March 26, 2003... Swedish biotechnology firm Biovitrum AB moved its candidate Type II diabetes drug, BVT. 3498, into a placebo-controlled, double-blind Phase II clinical trial that will involve more than 100 patients. Recruitment for the multicenter study in...

Basilea planning Phase III trial of lead drug for hand dermatitis.
March 26, 2003... Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd.'s lead molecule, an oral treatment for patients with chronic hand dermatitis refractory to topical therapy, attained its primary endpoint in a Phase II trial. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized,...

Vernalis results, cash shortfall come as surprise to investors.
March 26, 2003... LONDON -- Shares in Vernalis Group plc fell by almost two-thirds Friday after CEO Robert Mansfield resigned as the company released poor financial results and warned of a shortfall in working capital. Chairman George Kennedy told BioWorld...

Celltech's acquisition of stake in OGS puts pressure on CAT.
March 26, 2003... LONDON -- Oxford GlycoSciences plc is pushing Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc to improve its bid after Celltech Group plc said Friday it had acquired a 10.5 percent stake in OGS, further undermining CAT's all-share offer. "There is...

Genopole now boasts 42 biotech companies and 23 laboratories.
March 26, 2003... PARIS -- A recent visit by Industry Minister Nicole Fontaine provided the Genopole, France's national biotechnology business and science park at Evry, with an opportunity to review its achievements since its creation in July 1998. During...

Alizyme plc. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 26, 2003... * Alizyme plc, of Cambridge, UK, said it completed recruitment of 170 patients in a Phase llb study of renzapride in the treatment of alternating, or mixed-symptom, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Preliminary results are expected in October...

Ark Therapeutics Ltd. (Other News To Note).(Brief Article)
March 26, 2003... * Ark Therapeutics Ltd., of London, said its compound, EG3306, was shown to inhibit angiogenesis in a mouse model of diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. EG3306 is a peptide synthesized by Ark to specifically bind to the...