BioWorld International articles from October 2005

BioWorld International archives from October 2005

Karo Bio seeking SEK280m in discounted rights issue.
October 5, 2005... Karo Bio AB is seeking SEK280 million (US$35.9 million) in a discounted rights issue to fund its switch from early stage discovery to clinical development. The Huddinge, Sweden-based company has received commitments from current...

SkyePharma raising funds after scuttled partner deal.
October 5, 2005... LONDON -- SkyePharma plc is to raise 35 million [pounds sterling] (US$61.4 million) in a heavily discounted rights issue to fund Phase III development of Flutiform after pulling out of an agreed $1 60 million milestone and double-digit royalty...

Scientists probe 'signature' of cancer genetic damage.
October 5, 2005... A strategy to compare the genomes of cells from human tumors with those of normal body cells to identify genes that initiate the development of cancer has proved successful, allowing scientists to confirm the role of a known gene in the...

NatImmune, Enzon enter deal on recombinant MBL.
October 5, 2005... NatImmune A/S licensed its lead project, recombinant human mannan-binding lectin (rhMBL), in development for prevention of severe infection in MBL-deficient individuals undergoing chemotherapy, to Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc. for an up-front...

Closing in on first revenues, Phoqus seeking IPO on aim.
October 5, 2005... LONDON -- Phoqus Group plc is to raise 10 [pounds sterling] (US$17.5 million) to 12 million [pounds sterling]in an initial public offering on the Alternative Investment Market to fund it to first revenues, expected in the next 18 to 24 months....

4SC AG.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, appointed Enno Spillner as chief financial officer. He comes to 4SC from BioM VC Funds, where he had been a partner. The company is a drug discovery and development company, and its lead candidate, a therapy for...

Active Biotech AB.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Active Biotech AB, of Lund, Sweden, reported better-than-expected survival data for its first-generation cancer treatment, tumor-targeted superantigen CD2 (TTS CD2) in a Phase II trial involving 43 renal cancer patients. Median survival for all...

Altana AG.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Altana AG, of Bad Homburg, Germany, said findings published in this month's issue of Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapeutics show that the effect of Alvesco (ciclesonide) on cortisol is comparable to placebo and less than fluticasone propionate...

MMI raises 10m [pounds sterling] for Genvax's clinical studies of vaccines.
October 5, 2005... LONDON -- The technology management company Medical Marketing International (MMI) Group plc raised 10 million [pounds sterling] (US$17.5 million) in a rights issue to fund further clinical trials and manufacturing scale-up for cancer vaccines...

Axordia Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Axordia Ltd., of Sheffield, UK, a stem cell research company, signed an exclusive agreement with Chemicon International Inc., a subsidiary of Serologicals Corp., of Atlanta, to co-develop new antibody markers from Axordia's human embryonic stem...

CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc, of Cambridge, UK, initiated recruitment in a pivotal Phase III study of its potential new pain drug M6G (morphine-6-glucoronide), which is being studied in Europe in patients with moderate to severe postoperative pain...

CuraGen Corp., of Branford, Conn., and TopoTarget A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, initiated patient dosing in a Phase Ib open-label, multicenter, proof-of-concept trial evaluating PXD101, a small-molecule histone deacetylase inhibitor, to treat advanced solid tumors, including colorectal cancer.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... CuraGen Corp., of Branford, Conn., and TopoTarget A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, initiated patient dosing in a Phase Ib open-label, multicenter, proof-of-concept trial evaluating PXD101, a small-molecule histone deacetylase inhibitor, to treat...

Epigenomics AG.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Epigenomics AG, of Berlin, extended its existing agreement with Roche Diagnostics, of Pleasanton, Calif., to continue the research and development part of the collaboration for at least six months, with an option to prolong it for an additional...

German Ministry of Education and Research.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 5, 2005... German Ministry of Education and Research committed 150 million [euro] (US$179.1 million) over 10 years to support entrepreneurship among biotechnology researchers. The funds, which will be distributed through a program known as "ExistGo-Bio,"...

Glycominds Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Glycominds Ltd., of Thessaloniki, Greece, announced positive study results for its technology on multiple sclerosis patients. The technology has shown that it is possible to predict whether a patient will imminently develop an active form of MS...

Hemispherx Biopharma Inc.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., of Philadelphia, signed a research agreement with the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo. The collaboration will assess Hemispherx's experimental therapeutic Ampligen as an adjuvant to the institute's...

IDM Pharma Inc., of San Diego, formed an agreement with Innogenetics NV, of Ghent, Belgium, to extend the term of their collaboration through March.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... IDM Pharma Inc., of San Diego, formed an agreement with Innogenetics NV, of Ghent, Belgium, to extend the term of their collaboration through March. The extension is intended to enable Innogenetics to complete current development efforts and to...

Innovata plc, of Nottingham, UK, sold its ubiquitous chromatin opening element (UCOE) gene expression technology to Celliance Corp., of Norcross, Ga., for an undisclosed sum.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Innovata plc, of Nottingham, UK, sold its ubiquitous chromatin opening element (UCOE) gene expression technology to Celliance Corp., of Norcross, Ga., for an undisclosed sum. UCOE is used to improve the yield, consistency and stability of...

KeyNeurotek AG, of Magdeburg, Germany, began a research collaboration with the Schwarz Pharma Group, of Monheim, Germany.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... KeyNeurotek AG, of Magdeburg, Germany, began a research collaboration with the Schwarz Pharma Group, of Monheim, Germany. Schwarz will use KeyNeurotek technology to characterize drug candidates for its urology program. KeyNeurotek specializes...

Lipoxen Technologies Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Lipoxen Technologies Ltd., of London, signed a research and product collaboration with Baxter Healthcare Corp., of Deerfield, Ill., to investigate the effectiveness of conjugating Baxter's proteins with PolyXen, Lipoxen's technology. Financial...

MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, will generate antibodies against a new target provided by Centocor Inc., of Malvern, Pa., as a part of the their collaboration, which began in December 2000.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, will generate antibodies against a new target provided by Centocor Inc., of Malvern, Pa., as a part of the their collaboration, which began in December 2000. The target molecule is involved in...

Nomura International plc.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Nomura International plc, of London, is to acquire Code Securities, a leading European life sciences investment bank. Nomura said the transaction will give its clients access to specialist resources, while providing Code with better access to...

November AG.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... November AG, of Erlangen, Germany, appointed Astrid Dickert as chief financial officer. She joined the company in 2000 as a staff accountant and was promoted to head of accounting and controlling in 2003.

Orexo AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, is in line to receive a $6.5 million milestone payment from Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc., of Chadds Ford, Pa., following the completion of a clinical trial of Rapinyl (OX20), which is in development for management of breakthrough cancer pain.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Orexo AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, is in line to receive a $6.5 million milestone payment from Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc., of Chadds Ford, Pa., following the completion of a clinical trial of Rapinyl (OX20), which is in development for...

Osteologix Inc.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 5, 2005... Osteologix Inc., of Copenhagen, Denmark, announced positive results from its completed Phase I trial of its NBS-101 compound to treat osteoporosis. NBS-101 showed bioequivalence to strontium ranelate at a dose substantially lower than the...

Phytopharm plc.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Phytopharm plc, of Godmanchester, UK, said all 265 subjects have completed their participation in the Phase II proof-of-principle study of PYM50028 (Cogane), for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Results are expected in December 2005.

Pluristem Life Systems Inc.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Pluristem Life Systems Inc., of Haifa, Israel, appointed Zami Aberman CEO, as Shai Meretzki resumes his position as chief technology officer. Aberman holds a bachelor's of science in mechanical engineering from Ben Gurion University and has...

Prima Biomed Ltd.(AstraZeneca PLC enters into a research agreement)(Brief Article)
October 5, 2005... Prima Biomed Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, said London-based AstraZeneca plc agreed with Arthron Pty Ltd., a Prima subsidiary, to extend its research program of Arthron's Fc receptor technology until June 30, and to enable AstraZeneca to...

ProStrakan Group plc.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... ProStrakan Group plc, of Galashiels, UK, said its testosterone-replacement therapy Tostrex, for treating hypogonadism, had its first European market launch in Sweden. The product was developed by Cellegy Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Brisbane,...

PSivida Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... PSivida Ltd., of Perth, Australia, entered a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Control Delivery Systems Inc., of Watertown, Mass., in exchange for the issuance of about 16 million pSivida American depository shares to CDS...

Samaritan Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Las Vegas, entered an exclusive five-year supply agreement with Newry, Northern Ireland-based Norbrook Laboratories S.R.O. for raw formulation materials for the manufacturing of Samaritan's lead HIV drug, SP-01A, upon regulatory approval.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Samaritan Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Las Vegas, entered an exclusive five-year supply agreement with Newry, Northern Ireland-based Norbrook Laboratories S.R.O. for raw formulation materials for the manufacturing of Samaritan's lead HIV drug,...

Serologicals Corp., of Atlanta, acquired the UCOE (ubiquitous chromatin opening element) gene expression technology from Innovata plc, of Nottingham, UK, a company based on respiratory disease and inhaled therapies, for an undisclosed sum.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Serologicals Corp., of Atlanta, acquired the UCOE (ubiquitous chromatin opening element) gene expression technology from Innovata plc, of Nottingham, UK, a company based on respiratory disease and inhaled therapies, for an undisclosed sum. The...

Starpharma Holdings Ltd.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 5, 2005... Starpharma Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, received $20.3 million in development funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to accelerate work on VivaGel, a vaginal microbicide against sexually transmitted...

Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp., of Calgary, Alberta, said Medicon A/S, of Birkerod, Denmark, submitted a Phase I trial study protocol to the Danish regulatory agency on behalf of SCT for its NTx-265 program for the treatment of stroke.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp., of Calgary, Alberta, said Medicon A/S, of Birkerod, Denmark, submitted a Phase I trial study protocol to the Danish regulatory agency on behalf of SCT for its NTx-265 program for the treatment of stroke. The Phase...

Strand Life Sciences.(enters into a research agreements with Elan Pharmaceuticals)(Brief Article)
October 5, 2005... Strand Life Sciences, of Bangladore, India, entered a research collaboration with Elan Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Dublin, Ireland-based Elan Corp. plc, to support Elan's drug discovery efforts. Elan will access Strand's in silico technology...

Third Wave Technology Inc., of Madison, Wis., responded to a lawsuit filed against it by Innogenetics NV, of Ghent, Belgium, that alleges Third Wave is infringing one of Innogenetics' hepatitis C virus patents.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... Third Wave Technology Inc., of Madison, Wis., responded to a lawsuit filed against it by Innogenetics NV, of Ghent, Belgium, that alleges Third Wave is infringing one of Innogenetics' hepatitis C virus patents. Innogenetics also filed a similar...

Wilex AG.(appoints Norman Neville as vice president of clinical research)(Brief Article)
October 5, 2005... Wilex AG, of Munich, Germany, appointed Norman Neville vice president of clinical research and development. Neville joins the company from Wyeth Research, of Paris, where he was director of translational research and experimental medicine....

York Pharma plc.(Other News To Note)
October 5, 2005... York Pharma plc, of Hitchin, UK, said it founded a Japanese subsidiary and appointed Toshio Nagae as president. A large part of the clinical development of York Pharma's lead dermatology product, the topical antifungal Abasol, was undertaken in...

Novexel begins Phase I trial, gathers in milestone payment.
October 12, 2005... PARIS -- Novexel, a specialty pharmaceutical company, initiated a multidose Phase I trial of NXL 103, an orally administered antibiotic for the treatment of bacterial respiratory infections. The company's CEO, Iain Buchanan, pointed out to...

New study released touting global benefits of GM crops.(Cordia BioTechnology Convention 2005)
October 12, 2005... LONDON -- The all-but-total ban on genetically modified crops means Europe is missing out on significant environmental and economic benefits of growing the plants, according to a new study based on nine years of their use elsewhere. ...

Alzheimer's drugs could follow new breakthrough.
October 12, 2005... LONDON -- An international team of researchers has solved one of the biggest puzzles facing those working on Alzheimer's disease. For more than 20 years, scientists have known that amyloid precursor protein (APP) accumulates in the brain in...

Biovitrum cutting up to 100 research positions.
October 12, 2005... Biovitrum is laying off up to one-third of its R&D organization in a belt-tightening exercise aimed at supporting its switch from early stage discovery to late preclinical and clinical development. The Stockholm, Sweden-based firm has 580...

AIM wants to fill funding gap for European biotechs.(Alternative Investment Market)
October 12, 2005... LONDON -- London's Alternative Investment Market has proclaimed itself as the solution to the funding gap facing small, innovative companies across Europe and announced plans to extend its support network beyond the UK to the rest of the...

Clarification.(Correction Notice)
October 12, 2005... Comments made in the Oct. 5, 2005, issue of BioWorld International by SkyePharma plc CEO Michael Ashton about Merck and Co. Inc. and Pfizer Inc. are not related to current negotiations to license SkyePharma's asthma product Flutiform.

Avidex in-licenses antigen to focus on Type I diabetes.
October 12, 2005... LONDON -- Avidex Ltd. licensed an antigen associated with Type I diabetes, opening the way to a new approach to treating the disease through immunotherapy. Although the antigen is present in the pancreas of a substantial proportion of...

Abmaxis Inc.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Abmaxis Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., and BioArctic Neuroscience AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, signed a collaborative development agreement to jointly develop a therapeutic human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease....

Affibody AB.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Affibody AB, of Stockholm, Sweden, and Funakoshi Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, formed an agreement in which Funakoshi will promote and distribute Affibody's biotechnology products in Japan. Affibody has a new class of affinity ligands Funakoshi will sell...

Ardana plc, of Edinburgh, UK, said partner Cytochemia AG launched Striant SR, a testosterone-replacement therapy for male hypogonadism, in Germany.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Ardana plc, of Edinburgh, UK, said partner Cytochemia AG launched Striant SR, a testosterone-replacement therapy for male hypogonadism, in Germany. Ardana announced also that it appointed Mode Medical Ltd. to market Striant in Ireland.

Ark Therapeutics plc.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Ark Therapeutics plc, of London, completed development of its oxidized low-density lipoprotein antibody testing kit, oxLDL, for predicting an individual's risk of heart attack or stroke. The test assesses when atherosclerotic plaques become...

Avantogen Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Avantogen Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, reported that cancer researchers at Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and Avantogen achieved a milestone toward more individually targeted and effective treatments for cancer patients....

Avexa Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Avexa Ltd., of Victoria, Australia, said it received encouraging feedback during a meeting with the FDA regarding the development plan for its HIV/AIDS drug candidate, AVX754. The company expects to be able to move into Phase III after...

Bavarian Nordic A/S.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Bavarian Nordic A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, submitted a proposal to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to manufacture and supply 20 million doses of its Imvamune smallpox vaccine to the strategic national stockpile. The HHS...

BioAlliance Pharma SA.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... BioAlliance Pharma SA, of Paris, filed a marketing authorization application in Europe for miconazole Lauriad as a first-line local treatment for oropharyngeal candidiasis. It has filed the MAA with the French Health Products Safety Agency...

Biota Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, has had its share price pushed up by the Avian bird flu scare in Asia.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Biota Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, has had its share price pushed up by the Avian bird flu scare in Asia. Biota has rights to the flu drug Relenza marketed by GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, but now is in a legal dispute alleging...

Biotage AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, acquired a distribution partner, Separtis Holding AG, of Grellingen, Switzerland, for 1.4 million [euro] (US$1.7 million).(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Biotage AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, acquired a distribution partner, Separtis Holding AG, of Grellingen, Switzerland, for 1.4 million [euro] (US$1.7 million). The move is part of a wider strategy shift for Biotage, which is moving from an indirect...

Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd., of Petach-Tikvah, Israel, completed its initial public offering of 133,334 units at NIS337.5 apiece, with an oversubscription of 600 percent. The company raised NIS45 million (US$10 million) at a $25 million pre-money...

ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, launched a Phase II study evaluating the use of Ceflatonin in patients with accelerated phase chronic myeloid leukemia who are resistant to the first-line therapy Gleevec. The study was...

DeveloGen AG.(concludes a meeting with FDA and European Medicines Agency )(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... DeveloGen AG, of Goettingen, Germany, concluded its end-of-Phase II meeting with the FDA and a scientific advice meeting with the European Medicines Agencey for the company's lead product, DiaPep277. The compound is being developed as a...

Flamel Technologies SA.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Flamel Technologies SA, of Lyon, France, appointed Michel Finance executive vice president and chief financial officer. Finance was previously senior vice presdient and corporate controller of Sanofi-Aventis Group, of Paris.

Genable Technologies Ltd.(appoints John Monahan and Alan Boyd)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Genable Technologies Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, added John Monahan, founder and former CEO of Avigen Inc., of Alameda, Calif., and Alan Boyd, former R&D director at London-based Ark Therapeutics plc, to its board. Genable is developing gene...

Gentium SpA.(private placements of shares)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Gentium SpA, of Villa Guardia, Italy, entered definitive agreements for a $10.9 million private placement of about 1.6 million shares of its American depository shares at $7.05 each. Subject to shareholder approval, investors also will receive...

Innate Pharma SA.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Innate Pharma SA, of Marseille, France, appointed Patrick Squiban chief medical officer. Squiban was formerly vice president, medical and regulatory affairs, at Transgene SA, of Strasbourg, where he had been since 1997.

Intersuisse.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Intersuisse, of Melbourne, Australia, produces a biotechnology index that shows that Australian biotechnology stocks are again finding favor, after a long period in the doldrums. The index showed that biotech stocks jumped by an overall 17.2...

Israeli.(Matan Vilna'i appointed as chief scientist )(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Israeli Minister of Science and Technology Matan Vilna'i appointed a chief scientist after a two-year lapse: Mina Teicher, a Bar-Ilan University professor of mathematics, specializing in algebraic geometry. Vilna'i, the sixth minister during...

Jerini AG.(announce initial public offerings)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Jerini AG, of Berlin, announced plans for an initial public offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in this quarter. The company would use proceeds to launch its lead product, Icatibant, into the market. The listing will be jointly led by...

Kreatech Biotechnology BV.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Kreatech Biotechnology BV, of Amersterdam, the Netherlands, launched its first two universal linkage system (ULS) labeling kits for protein science applications. The two 2-color ULS protein labeling and fluorescent detection kits are intended...

Life Therapeutics Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Life Therapeutics Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, retired the $6.8 million note held by Atlanta-based Serologicals Corp., finalizing its December 2003 purchase of the Therapeutic Plasma business from Serologicals. The business now is in the Life...

Meditech Research Ltd.(helds a meeting)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Meditech Research Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, held its first formal meeting with the FDA to understand what data would be needed to support an investigational new drug application for its lead cancer product, HyCAMP. The company intends to...

MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, added three therapeutic antibody programs within the scope of its ongoing collaboration with Schering AG, of Berlin.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, added three therapeutic antibody programs within the scope of its ongoing collaboration with Schering AG, of Berlin. Schering has chosen three target molecules for MorphoSys to generate antibodies against....

Oxford BioMedica plc.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, said preliminary data from a Phase II trial of TroVax in renal-cell carcinoma show that the drug is safe and well tolerated, and that it induces a strong antitumor immune response against 5T4 tumor antigen....

OxiGene Inc.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... OxiGene Inc., of Waltham, Mass., said updated Phase Ib/II trial data for its lead vascular disrupting agent, Combretastatin A4 Phosphate (CA4P), administered in combination with radiotherapy, demonstrated that non-small-cell lung cancer...

Peptech Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Peptech Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, appointed John Chiplin CEO, effective January 2006. Chiplin previously served as CEO of ITI Life Sciences, of Dundee, Scotland, and as CEO for California-based Geneformatics. Chiplin will take over for Mel...

PharmaMar SA.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... PharmaMar SA, of Madrid, Spain, said that PM02734, a marine-derived compound, began Phase I trials for the treatment of solid tumors. PM02734 is a chemical entity resulting from PharmaMar's internal research program for derivatives of marine...

Stokes Bio Ltd.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... Stokes Bio Ltd., of Limerick, Ireland, raised 1 million [euro] (US$1.2 million) in first round funding from Kernel Capital Partners, of Cork, Ireland, to fund development of a microfluidics-based platform for diagnosing a predisposition to...

Trillium Therapeutics Inc.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Trillium Therapeutics Inc., of Toronto, acquired all assets belonging to Arthron Ltd. Pty., a subsidiary of Melbourne, Australia-based Prima Biomed Ltd. Through the acquisition, Trillium gains Arthron's intellectual property relating to the...

TVM.(investments)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... TVM, of Boston and Munich, closed its latest life sciences fund, TVM Life Science Ventures VI, which includes $290.8 million in committed capital raised from a mix of investors, including lead investors European Investment Fund and AlpInvest....

XOMA Ltd., of Berkeley, Calif., expanded its existing nonexclusive, worldwide license to Crucell NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, for XOMA's bacterial cell-expression technology to improve Crucell's position to perform phage display in the field of infectious disease with third party collaborators.(Other News To Note)
October 12, 2005... XOMA Ltd., of Berkeley, Calif., expanded its existing nonexclusive, worldwide license to Crucell NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, for XOMA's bacterial cell-expression technology to improve Crucell's position to perform phage display in the field...

ExonHit, BioMerieux expand union in cancer diagnostics.(An IPO, Too?)
October 19, 2005... PARIS -- ExonHit Therapeutics SA and BioMerieux extended and expanded their research collaboration for developing new blood-based diagnostics for the early detection of cancers. The original agreement was formed in 2001 and renewed in...

BioInvent raising SEK160m in discounted rights offering.
October 19, 2005... BioInvent International AB plans to raise about SEK160 million (US$20.2 million) in a discounted rights offering to continue development of its single clinical development program, in HIV, and to bring three more projects into the clinic within...

Marijuana brain receptors may help slow brain aging.
October 19, 2005... LONDON -- The brain receptors to which the active ingredients of marijuana bind play an important role in maintaining the brain's normal functions of learning and memory, a new study has shown. Mice that lacked those receptors suffered early...

Trigen brings in 18.2m [pounds sterling] via second round for TGN255.(Trigen Holdings AG )
October 19, 2005... LONDON -- Trigen Holdings AG raised 18.2 million [pounds sterling] (US$31.8 million) in its second private round to fund a Phase III trial of the lead product TGN255, an intravenous thrombin inhibitor and complete reformulation of TGN167, an...

Amgen weighs in on Europe's guidelines for biosimilar drugs.(Cordia BioTechnology Convention 2005)
October 19, 2005... LONDON -- The guidelines for registering biogeneric drugs in Europe are vague and leave a lot unanswered. That includes how equivalence can be shown without relying on the innovator's data, whether the safety requirements are sufficiently...

Affectis Pharmaceuticals AG.(Other News To Note)
October 19, 2005... * Affectis Pharmaceuticals AG, of Munich, Germany, won two government grants totaling 2.2 million [euro] to broaden and advance its drug discovery and development programs. The first, 1.7 million [euro] from the German Ministry of Education and...

Affymetrix Inc.(Other News To Note)
October 19, 2005... * Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., and CapitalBio Corp., of Beijing, said they were launching an initiative to support and promote rice-functional genomic research in China. Their relationship calls for CapitalBio, as an Affymetrix...