Poniard Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, entered a committed equity financing facility under which it may sell up to $20 million of common stock to Commerce Court Small Cap Value Fund Ltd...The company intends to use the proceeds to fund clinical and regulatory activities for picoplatin as a second-line therapy for small-cell lung cancer patients with refractory disease following first-line treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy, and to support partnering efforts to continue

And collaborators Theravance Inc., of South San Francisco, and GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, recently started Phase III studies with its fixed-dose LABA and corticosteroid treatment in COPD...Funds will be used to support clinical trials and in-licensing deals for product candidates or additional technologies and complementary business asset acquisitions. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 29, 2010

China Pharma Holdings Inc., of Haikou City, China, said that it has completed clinical trials for Candesartan, an anti-hypertension drug, and submitted the generic drug production application to China's FDA...Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, completed enrollment in its Phase Ib/II trial evaluating voreloxin, the company's lead compound, in combination with cytarabine, in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia

Poniard Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Francisco, sold about 3.5 million shares to Azimuth Opportunity Ltd...Those funds will be used for business development activities and other general corporate purposes.

Enobia Pharma Inc., of Montreal, started a Phase II trial to test two different doses of ENB-0040, a bone-targeted enzyme replacement therapy, in hypophosphatasia...FibroGen Inc., of San Francisco, reported three presentations of clinical work at the American Society of Nephrology meeting in San Diego, including results from a Phase I study of FG-3019, a monoclonal antibody against connective tissue growth factor, in patients with Type I and Type II diabetes mellitus, which showed that the drug was

But he said a dry-eye product, still in the early stages of clinical development, would require "real marketing muscle" and a partnership would be "paramount to us" in that indication...Cardiome Pharma Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, reported the final results of its modified Dutch auction tender offer to purchase for cancellation up to $27.5 million of its common shares, which expired Oct. 13...Shares of Rexahn (AMEX:RNN) closed at 73 cents Monday, down 5 cents.

Jennerex Inc., of San Francisco, has completed the second and final closing of a private placement Series C financing with gross proceeds of $5.61 million, exceeding the target of $5 million...The company's clinical trial programs with lead product JX-594 will now be funded through 2010

The following data were released at the Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) meeting in San Francisco...BioAlliance Pharma, of Paris, presented results of a Phase III study with miconazole Lauriad mucoadhesive buccal tablets (MBT) that demonstrated noninferiority to clotrimazole troches for oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC), an opportunistic infection of the mouth and throat

FAB Pharma, of Paris, said it completed a €2.3 million (US$3.36 million) series A funding, led by CDC innovation and co-led by Bioam Gestion...FAB Pharma, which acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus treatment assets from Mutabilis SA, of Romainville, France, said it plans to use the proceeds to fund Phase I trials of its lead product, Fab-001, a narrow-spectrum antibiotic, which possesses a new mechanism of action that is not used by any drug currently on the market or in late-stage

Nektar Therapeutics, of San Carlos, Calif., presented clinical study data demonstrating that the oral tablet formulation of NKTR-118 has favorable systemic bioavailability and a low risk for mediating significant drug-drug interactions...Nile Therapeutics Inc., of San Francisco, presented an abstract from a Phase Ib study of CD-NP in chronic heart failure patients, which showed a 24-hour infusion resulted in improved renal function as measured by creatinine clearance (p < 0.01) compared with a 24

Achaogen Inc., of South San Francisco, presented data showing that ACHN-490 was well tolerated in a Phase I trial and demonstrated preclinical efficacy against several drug-resistant pathogens...In Phase II studies, clinical cure rates reached as high as 98 percent with no relapses

Acceleron Pharma Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., reported preliminary results from the ACE-031 Phase I single dose trial demonstrating that ACE-031 increased lean body mass and muscle volume...Initiation of the clinical trial has triggered an undisclosed milestone payment under the agreement...Merck also is reviewing clinical data for migraine compound MK-0974 (telcagepant), which is in Phase III trials in preparation for discussions with regulatory agencies later this year

raised $27 million in a Series B extension to drive clinical trials of PPI-461, a preclinical small-molecule NS5A inhibitor for hepatitis C...Omar Haffar, president and CEO of Presidio, said the San Francisco-based company now has enough money to carry it into 2011

Allostera Pharma Inc., of Montreal, secured a Series A financing of C$17 million (US$14.5 million...Nile Therapeutics Inc., of San Francisco, has received commitments to raise about $3.4 million in a private placement of securities...Zosano Pharma Inc., of Fremont, Calif., closed a new round of financing in the amount of $30 million

Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, a wholly owned member of the Roche Group, said that Phase III study BRAVO showed Lucentis (ranibizumab) improved vision in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion...Sucampo Pharma Americas Inc., of Bethesda, Md., reported positive top-line results from its Phase II trial of orally administered cobiprostone for the prevention of gastric ulcers and other gastrointestinal injuries in patients treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

Enobia Pharma Inc., of Montreal, said positive results were reported from a Phase I safety trial of ENB-0040 in hypophosphatasia in adults, and early safety and efficacy findings from an ongoing study in severely affected infants...The patients' overall clinical status also improved with most showing improved growth and requiring less respiratory support...Medivation Inc., of San Francisco, said it completed patient enrollment in the CONNECTION study, a six-month, confirmatory, pivotal Phase III trial

Cytokinetics Inc., of South San Francisco, said data from a Phase IIa multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial showed that CK-1827452 significantly increased systolic ejection time, stroke volume and ejection fraction calculated by a hybrid method employing Doppler-derived stroke volume in a concentration dependent manner in patients with heart failure

BioCis Pharma Ltd., of Turku, Finland, said it started Phase I testing of ProtoCure intravesical instillation solution, a drug aimed at treating urinary bladder cancer...Poniard Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, reported updated data from its Phase II trial of picoplatin in metastatic colorectal cancer patients showing that, when given once every four weeks in combination with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin in the FOLPI regimen, and oxaliplatin in combination with 5-fluorouracil and

Achaogen, of San Francisco, presented research showing a rapid rise in rates of resistance to current antibiotics at the annual European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, being held May 16-19 in Helsinki, Finland...Endotis Pharma, of Paris, said that EP42675 successfully completed its Phase I program...IntelGenx Corp., of Saint Laurent, Quebec, and Circ Pharma, of Dublin, Ireland, completed the formulation development of CRES pravastatin (controlled-release enhanced statin