BioWorld International articles from May 2007

BioWorld International archives from May 2007

Karo Bio grosses $59.6m in discounted rights offering.
May 16, 2007... With a deal for its preclinical treatment for tackling dyslipidemia, KB-5359, thought to be imminent, Karo Bio AB strengthened its hand in partnering negotiations by completing a discounted rights offering that grossed SEK406 million (US$59.6...

Listing raises $39m for ULive's deal with Liverpool University.
May 16, 2007... LONDON -- ULive plc, set up to commercialize medical research from Liverpool University, is joining the UK's band of quoted technology management companies, raising 20 million [pounds sterling] ($39.6 million) in a listing on London's...

Test to assess genetic MI risk expected to be out this year.
May 16, 2007... LONDON -- A genetic variant has been identified that can increase the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) by more than 60 percent among people who have two copies of it. The variant, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that has been...

Researchers find new focus targeting cancer stem cells.
May 16, 2007... BOSTON -- The "exciting new biology" of cancer stem cells (CSC) shows why after 50 years of progress in understanding cancer, "we are not that much closer to a cure." That was the sobering introduction by Bruce Cohen, president and CEO of...

Sweden's drug pipeline matures with late-stage development.
May 16, 2007... Sweden's drug development pipeline is showing signs of maturity, according to a survey which analyzed the development activities of the country's biotechnology sector. The number of projects in Phase III trials has climbed from five to 11...

4SC AG.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said it and the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Munster were able to show that mice infected with highly pathogenic bird flu viruses can be healed effectively using 4SC's SC75741 drug...

Addex Pharmaceuticals SA.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Addex Pharmaceuticals SA, of Geneva, is seeking CHF135 million (US$111.2 million) in an IPO on the Swiss Stock Exchange in Zurich. An overallotment option, if exercised, would bring in another CHF20 million. The company set an indicative...

Amura Holdings Ltd.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Amura Holdings Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, said its lead cathepsin K inhibitors for osteoporosis and bone metastasis demonstrated good in vivo safety profiles in a seven-day, repeat-dose toxicity study in rodents. They were well tolerated and no...

Cellectis licenses technology for homologous recombination.
May 16, 2007... PARIS -- Cellectis SA has granted GlaxoSmithKline a worldwide, nonexclusive sublicense to a patent family relating to a process for the specific replacement or insertion of a gene in a receiver genome by homologous recombination. The...

Eurofins Scientific opening labs in Colorado, Singapore.
May 16, 2007... PARIS -- Eurofins Scientific said its two new pharmaceutical testing laboratories, one in Aurora, Colo., and one in Singapore, now are fully operational. The Eurofins/Medinet laboratory in Aurora is specialized in services based on the...

Bioceros BV, of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and disposable bioreactor development company CELLution Biotech BV, of the Netherlands, said they will start a collaboration to manufacture high levels of recombinant proteins in the disposable CELL-tainer bioreactor, a bioreactor designed with superior gas exchange properties over conventional stirred tank reactors, which results in higher product yields using mammalian cells.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Bioceros BV, of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and disposable bioreactor development company CELLution Biotech BV, of the Netherlands, said they will start a collaboration to manufacture high levels of recombinant proteins in the disposable...

Biocrates Life Sciences GmbH.(Other News To Note)(Brief article)
May 16, 2007... * Biocrates Life Sciences GmbH, of Innsbruck, Austria, said it is among the participants in a Framework Six European Union project named COBRED, a program to use innovative technology platforms to find diagnostic biomarkers for colon and breast...

Biofusion plc, of Sheffield, UK, announced the formation of Medella Therapeutics Ltd., around research from the University of Sheffield.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Biofusion plc, of Sheffield, UK, announced the formation of Medella Therapeutics Ltd., around research from the University of Sheffield. Medella is developing monoclonal antibodies that inhibit the action of adrenomedullin a molecule found in...

bioMerieux, of Paris, and NuGEN Technologies Inc., of San Carlos, Calif., entered a deal to cross-license intellectual property, as well as a supply agreement for NuGEN's WTOvation RNA Amplification System.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * bioMerieux, of Paris, and NuGEN Technologies Inc., of San Carlos, Calif., entered a deal to cross-license intellectual property, as well as a supply agreement for NuGEN's WTOvation RNA Amplification System. The deal gives bioMerieux...

Cancer Research Technology Ltd.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Cancer Research Technology Ltd., of London, the technology transfer arm of the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK), announced an expansion of its development laboratories that will double in scale its technology transfer operations. In the...

CytoGenix Inc., of Houston, and Eurogentec SA, of Liege, Belgium, executed a letter of intent regarding synDNA development.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * CytoGenix Inc., of Houston, and Eurogentec SA, of Liege, Belgium, executed a letter of intent regarding synDNA development. They plan to collaborate to optimize manufacturing and to implement purification and quality-control parameters. A...

Epigenomics AG, of Berlin, and Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, entered a collaboration to identify DNA methylation biomarkers that may predict patient response to an undisclosed marketed oncology drug.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Epigenomics AG, of Berlin, and Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, entered a collaboration to identify DNA methylation biomarkers that may predict patient response to an undisclosed marketed oncology drug. Financial terms were not...

Evotec AG, of Hamburg, Germany, said Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., extended its ongoing discovery collaboration with Evotec into its fourth year.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Evotec AG, of Hamburg, Germany, said Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., extended its ongoing discovery collaboration with Evotec into its fourth year. Applying its expertise in medicinal chemistry, Evotec has supported Panacos...

Inno Biologics Sdn. Bhd., of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, entered a 10-year cooperation agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, whereby Inno clients will have access to BI's manufacturing technology platform for Phase I and Phase II biopharmaceutical products produced by mammalian cell culture.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Inno Biologics Sdn. Bhd., of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, entered a 10-year cooperation agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, whereby Inno clients will have access to BI's manufacturing technology platform for Phase I...

Nautilus Biotech SA.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Nautilus Biotech SA, of Evry, France, has received clearance from the FDA to carry out a Phase I clinical trial in the U.S. of the oral formulation of Belerofon, its proprietary variant of human interferon-alpha. Characterized by a single...

NicOx SA, of Sophia-Antipolis, France, and Axcan Pharma Inc., of Mont-Saint- Hilaire, Quebec, have halted development of NCX 1000, which was undergoing a Phase IIa trial for the treatment of portal hypertension.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * NicOx SA, of Sophia-Antipolis, France, and Axcan Pharma Inc., of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, have halted development of NCX 1000, which was undergoing a Phase IIa trial for the treatment of portal hypertension. A preliminary analysis of the...

NovaThera Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, and Gamida Cell Ltd., of Jerusalem, formed a partnership to pool technology and expertise with the clinical team at Papworth Hospital to develop cell therapeutics for lung repair and regeneration.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * NovaThera Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, and Gamida Cell Ltd., of Jerusalem, formed a partnership to pool technology and expertise with the clinical team at Papworth Hospital to develop cell therapeutics for lung repair and regeneration. The...

Polyplus-transfection SA.(Other News To Note)(financial services of Association Franciase contre les Myopathies)(Brief article)
May 16, 2007... * Polyplus-transfection SA, of Strasbourg, France, obtained a 80,000 [euro] (US$108,338) grant from AFM (Association Franciase contre les Myopathies), France's Muscular Dystrophy Association. The grant will finance the cGMP-compliant production...

Hurdles remain for successful commercialization of stem cells.
May 16, 2007... BOSTON -- Stem cells now are in the clinic, but the ability to make any profit from them still is in doubt, despite the fact that they offer the hope of therapies for many intractable diseases. "A number of cell therapies have been...

Seegene Inc., of Seoul, South Korea, and BioServe, of Beltsville, Md., partnered to develop and validate test systems for infectious diseases in the Indian market.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Seegene Inc., of Seoul, South Korea, and BioServe, of Beltsville, Md., partnered to develop and validate test systems for infectious diseases in the Indian market. Under the agreement, Seegene will access BioServe's repository of Indian DNA...

Stallergenes SA, of Antony, France, and CMC Biopharmaceuticals A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, entered an agreement to develop and supply recombinant Bet v 1 purified bulk.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Stallergenes SA, of Antony, France, and CMC Biopharmaceuticals A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, entered an agreement to develop and supply recombinant Bet v 1 purified bulk. Bet v 1 is the protein that embodies most of the allergenicity of birch...

ValiRx plc, of London, extended the scope of the agreement between its subsidiary Cronos Therapeutics Ltd., and Cancer Research Technology Ltd., a specialist oncology development and commercialization company owned by Cancer Research UK.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * ValiRx plc, of London, extended the scope of the agreement between its subsidiary, Cronos Therapeutics Ltd., and Cancer Research Technology Ltd., a specialist oncology development and commercialization company owned by Cancer Research UK. The...

VASTox plc.(Other News To Note)(drug discovery program)(Brief article)
May 16, 2007... * VASTox plc, of Oxford, UK, selected VOX C1100 as the lead candidate within its Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug discovery program. The small molecule is designed to compensate for low levels of dystrophin by increasing levels of a similar...

Viropro Inc., of Montreal, and Intas Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., of Ahmedabad, India, signed a memorandum of understanding for the production of an undisclosed therapeutic protein.(Other News To Note)
May 16, 2007... * Viropro Inc., of Montreal, and Intas Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., of Ahmedabad, India, signed a memorandum of understanding for the production of an undisclosed therapeutic protein. As a result of the commercial and research collaboration, Intas...

Basilea shares rise on NDA, alitretinoin Phase III data.
May 23, 2007... Positive news on two fronts during the past week provided Basilea Pharmaceutica AG with a share-price boost of about 6 percent. Basel, Switzerland-based Basilea and its development partner, Johnson & Johnson, disclosed recently they had...

UK bill would clear way for interspecies research.
May 23, 2007... LONDON -- The UK law on embryonic stem cell research is set to be further liberalized to allow the creation of animal/human hybrid embryos, in which the nucleus of an adult human cell is inserted into the enucleated egg of a mammal, such as a...

Gene-delivery system offers hope for cancer therapy.
May 23, 2007... LONDON -- Clinical trials of a cancer treatment that involves giving a genetically modified virus that selectively replicates in cancer cells are expected to begin next year. A study of the strategy, which involves giving the modified virus...

Swiss exchange proves golden for Addex with $111m IPO.
May 23, 2007... Underlining Switzerland's current position as Europe's preeminent biotechnology IPO market, Addex Pharmaceuticals SA raised gross proceeds of CHF136.9 million (US$111.3 million) in an offering on the Swiss Stock Exchange in Zurich that was four...

EU industry welcomes political support for biotechnology.
May 23, 2007... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union ministers have given their formal backing to a reinforced strategy in support of European biotechnology, to the delight of industry executives. The industry ministers of the 27 member states endorsed a...

Alimentary Health.(Other News To Note)(Brief article)
May 23, 2007... Alimentary Health, of Cork, Ireland, said two studies demonstrated the anti-inflammatory activity of a natural probiotic bacterial strain of human origin, Bifantis (Bifidobacterium infantis 35624), in models of arthritis and salmonella...

Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics NV.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics NV, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is planning an IPO on the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam. The company is seeking new cash to fund development of its pipeline of gene therapies for orphan indications and to...

FDA panelists cast favorable votes for smallpox vaccine.(Discussion)
May 23, 2007... GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- The FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted 11-0 that Acambis plcs's smallpox vaccine ACAM2000 is safe and effective for use in high-risk situations. That's in line with the company's...

EuropaBio seeks damage limits on technology assessments.
May 23, 2007... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European biotech industry is aiming to control the risks implicit in ongoing European discussions on health technology assessment. It took advantage of the 2007 BIO conference in Boston to launch a call for standards to...

Ardana plc.(Other News To Note)(drug approval)(Brief article)
May 23, 2007... Ardana plc, of Edinburgh, UK, was granted orphan drug status for ARD-07, an oral growth hormone secretagogue (GHS), which Ardana is developing as a diagnostic for growth hormone deficiency in adults. GHS is an oral synthetic small molecule that...

Bavarian Nordic A/S.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... Bavarian Nordic A/S, Kvistgard, Denmark, said it is appealing a ruling by a federal district court in Delaware that dismissed its claims of conversion, unfair competition and unfair trade acts on summary judgment. The suit relates to production...

Pharma's need for blockbusters called an exhausted model.
May 23, 2007... BOSTON -- Can the industry innovate fast enough to avoid extinction? This was the question posed at an innovation meeting sponsored by the venture capital firm PureTech Ventures in Boston earlier this month. As Frank Douglas, PureTech...

Biocortech.(Other News To Note)(financial aid)(Brief article)
May 23, 2007... Biocortech, of Paris, said its EDIT CNS project aimed at discovering treatments of psychiatric disorders has been selected by Paris Biocluster "Pole de competitivite Medicen' "and will be financed by the French Ministry of Industry. The program...

Genmab A/S.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said its fully human antibody HuMax-HepC prevented Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in an animal model. In the pre-clinical study, mice with a compromised immune system were transplanted with human liver...

GPC Biotech AG, of Martinsried, Germany, and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., said the FDA's Oncology Drug Advisory Committee will review the new drug application (NDA) on July 24 for oral platinum drug satraplatin in the second-line treatment of hormone refractory prostate cancer.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... GPC Biotech AG, of Martinsried, Germany, and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., said the FDA's Oncology Drug Advisory Committee will review the new drug application (NDA) on July 24 for oral platinum drug satraplatin in the...

MorphoSys AG.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said stockholders approved a 3-for-1 stock split. Each shareholder will receive two additional shares for every outstanding share held on a given date, and trading will begin on a split-adjusted basis in...

Phytopharm plc.(Other News To Note)(clinical research for Myogane)(Brief article)
May 23, 2007... Phytopharm plc, of Godmanchester, UK, said it received UK regulatory approval for a Phase Ib healthy volunteer clinical study for Myogane, an orally active neurotrophic factor inducer being developed for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the most...

Proteome Sciences plc.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... Proteome Sciences plc, of Cobham, UK, said the European Patent Office will grant a patent on its isobaric mass tags and their use as chemical reagents to label proteins. The company said that will enable it to solicit licenses and royalties...

Proteros Biostructures GmbH, of Martinsried, Germany, and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Ridgefield, Conn., entered an 18-month deal in the field of protein crystallography.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... Proteros Biostructures GmbH, of Martinsried, Germany, and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Ridgefield, Conn., entered an 18-month deal in the field of protein crystallography. Proteros is entitled to research funding and success...

Rosetta Genomics.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... Rosetta Genomics, of Rehovot, Israel, has signed a research agreement with Columbia University Medical Center to advance its lead cancer diagnostic. The medical center will use its laboratory to perform clinical validation of the company's lead...

Scil Technology GmbH.(Other News To Note)(Brief article)
May 23, 2007... Scil Technology GmbH, of Martinsried, Germany, gained regulatory approval to begin a Phase II clinical trial of MD05 as a surgical treatment of periodontal disease. MD05, which comprises a synthetic carrier linked to recombinant human growth...

Shire plc.(Other News To Note)(drug approval)(Brief article)
May 23, 2007... * Shire plc, of Basingstoke, UK, has received an approvable letter from the FDA for SPD465, an investigational oral stimulant intended to provide symptom control of ADHD in adults for up to 16 hours with one daily dose. Shire submitted a New...

VASTox plc.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... VASTox plc, of Oxford, UK, said it signed a long-term commercial collaboration with an undisclosed U.S. pharmaceutical company. The deal involves VASTox's wholly owned subsidiary, Dextra Laboratories, which specializes in carbohydrate drug...

Vernalis plc, of Winnersh, UK, and Servier, of Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, entered a joint, three-year oncology drug discovery collaboration.(Other News To Note)
May 23, 2007... Vernalis plc, of Winnersh, UK, and Servier, of Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, entered a joint, three-year oncology drug discovery collaboration. Under the terms, the companies will use Vernalis' drug discovery platform on an undisclosed target. In...

Will the ghost of TeGenero Stifle UK biotech innovation?
May 30, 2007... LONDON -- Members of the UK biotech industry met last week to discuss how they are coming to terms with the practical consequences of the disastrous TGN1412 clinical trial, and in particular the extra scrutiny to which biological products with...

Alligator Bioscience raises $7.4m for protein drugs.
May 30, 2007... Alligator Bioscience AB raised SEK51 million (US$7.4 million) in a new share issue to advance its pipeline of internal drug candidates, bringing its total funding to SEK165 million since its foundation in 2001. The Lund, Sweden-based...

Fishing expedition hooks new breast cancer genes.
May 30, 2007... LONDON -- A new method of trawling the genome for genes that increase susceptibility to breast cancer has identified five genes that together may account for 4 percent of inherited cases of breast cancer. Unlike most of the breast cancer...

Micromet, Nycomed GM-CSF deal could be worth 125m [euro].
May 30, 2007... Micromet Inc.'s potential 120 million [euro] (US$161 million) development deal with Nycomed A/S--plus 5 million [euro] up front--jump-starts the preclinical MT203 program, giving the GM-CSF neutralizer better odds against a similar antibody...

Tighter EU threshold for adventitious GM presence?
May 30, 2007... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European biotech industry executives greeted with dismay a European Parliament resolution approved May 22, which aims at imposing a new--and much tighter--threshold for the adventitious presence of genetically modified...

ACS Biomarker BV, of Maastricht, the Netherlands, and BG Medicine Inc., of Waltham, Mass., entered an agreement granting BG rights to develop and commercialize a biomarker-based molecular diagnostic test as a prognostic indicator of congestive heart failure.(Other News To Note)
May 30, 2007... ACS Biomarker BV, of Maastricht, the Netherlands, and BG Medicine Inc., of Waltham, Mass., entered an agreement granting BG rights to develop and commercialize a biomarker-based molecular diagnostic test as a prognostic indicator of congestive...

Qiagen extends diagnostic deal with epigenomics.
May 30, 2007... Epigenomics AG will receive additional up-front and milestone payments from Qiagen N.V. following an extension of an existing agreement originally signed in 2005. Under the original deal, Venlo, the Netherlands-based Qiagen licensed...

Anavex Life Sciences Corp.(Other News To Note)
May 30, 2007... Anavex Life Sciences Corp., of Geneva, said in vivo preclinical data showed that ANAVEX 1-41 and ANAVEX 2-73, muscarinic ligands with a high affinity for the sigma-1 receptor, suggest a possibly neuroprotective and antiamnesiac efficacy in...

Ark Therapeutics Group plc.(Other News To Note)(Brief article)
May 30, 2007... Ark Therapeutics Group plc, of London, said it has been given clearance by the U.S. Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) for its planned Phase III clinical study of Trinam, its gene therapy to prevent hemodialysis access graft blockage. The...

Scotland's ITI goes hunting in Ubiquitin signaling field.(ITI Life Sciences)
May 30, 2007... LONDON -- Scotland's publicly funded technology commercialization body, ITI Life Sciences, wants to invest in a drug discovery program in ubiquitin signaling and has launched a worldwide search for companies and academics to take part. ITI...

Axxam SpA, of Milan, Italy, and PerkinElmer Inc., of Boston, entered a deal under which PE will become the exclusive provider of Axxam's Photina photoprotein technology to the drug discovery market.(Other News To Note)(Brief article)
May 30, 2007... Axxam SpA, of Milan, Italy, and PerkinElmer Inc., of Boston, entered a deal under which PE will become the exclusive provider of Axxam's Photina photoprotein technology to the drug discovery market. The technology is a luminescent cell-based...

Debiopharm Group.(Other News To Note)(Brief article)
May 30, 2007... Debiopharm Group, of Lausanne, Switzerland, said its three-month, sustained-release formulation of Salvacyl/Moapar completed the European mutual recognition procedure in Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, the Netherlands and...

Novagali Pharma SA.(Other News To Note)
May 30, 2007... Novagali Pharma SA, of Evry, France, said Vekacia, a cyclosporine A drug, was granted orphan drug designation by the FDA for vernal keratoconjunctivitis, a rare and severe form of chronic allergic conjunctivitis affecting mostly children and...

SinoBiomed Inc., of Shanghai, China, said its subsidiary Shanghai Wanxing Bio-pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. has signed a letter of intent to acquire pharmaceutical distribution company Suzhou Baoi Medical Development Co., of Suzhou, China.(Other News To Note)
May 30, 2007... SinoBiomed Inc., of Shanghai, China, said its subsidiary Shanghai Wanxing Bio-pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. has signed a letter of intent to acquire pharmaceutical distribution company Suzhou Baoi Medical Development Co., of Suzhou, China. Suzhou...

ThromboGenics NV.(Other News To Note)(Brief article)
May 30, 2007... ThromboGenics NV, of Leuven, Belgium, has decided to absorb Thromb-X NV, its wholly owned subsidiary. There will be no issuance of new shares or cash payment upon completion of the transaction, which is expected to be approved at the next...

TMO Renewables Ltd.(Other News To Note)
May 30, 2007... TMO Renewables Ltd., of Surrey, UK, licensed the ERGO bioinformatics software developed and maintained by Chicago-based Integrated Genomics Inc. for gene annotation, metabolic reconstruction and enzyme data mining, as well as for comparative...

BT Pharma raises 1.3m [euro] to advance ProCervix.
May 30, 2007... PARIS -- BT Pharma SA has raised a 1.3 million [euro] (US$1.7 million) bridge finance facility from existing shareholders and an unnamed new investor. The funds will enable the company to move its lead product, ProCervix, a therapeutic...

Cellectis reaches milestone in Bayer CropScience deal.(Brief article)
May 30, 2007... PARIS -- Cellectis SA has received its first milestone payment from Bayer CropScience under the collaboration agreement signed between the two companies in July, which covers the use of Cellectis' meganuclease technology in plant research and...

Vectura Group plc.(Other News To Note)(Brief article)
May 30, 2007... Vectura Group plc, of Chippenham, UK, announced positive results in a Phase IIa proof-of-concept clinical study for VR776, for the treatment of premature ejaculation (PE). VR776 is a proprietary formulation of an unnamed centrally-acting drug,...