In May NicOx halted the development of another drug candidate, NCX 1000, which was undergoing a Phase IIa clinical trial for the treatment of portal hypertension and was being co-developed with Axcan Pharma, of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec...StemCells Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., said the Phase I clinical trial of its proprietary HuCNS-SC product candidate (purified human neural stem cells) has completed enrollment of the low-dose cohort and will proceed to the high-dose cohort

Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., presented data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago showing that a therapeutic regimen that employs Velcade (bortezomib) for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients, called Total Therapy 3 (TT3), generated a complete response and near-complete response rate of 84 percent when used prior to and as maintenance following stem cell transplantation, compared to 68 percent for previously reported results from Total

GMX1777, licensed from LEO Pharma A/S, of Ballerup, Denmark, is a water-soluble, intravenously administered prodrug of LEO's CHS828...Inspire plans to begin a required six-month nasal toxicology study of epinastine in a single animal species to support longer-term clinical trials, and meet with the FDA to discuss the program's next steps...But in the second primary endpoint, ocular redness, bepotastine did not achieve statistical significance, instead showing a trend toward clinical significance

The clinical trial is being conducted by Nordic Bioscience following a development agreement with Novartis...The high dose evaluated in the study was equivalent to the lowest dose available of the currently marketed nebulized budesonide product

AspenBio Pharma Inc., of Castle Rock, Colo., said results from ongoing research and clinical studies show that its human appendicitis blood test appears able to identify patients with appendicitis at a very high sensitivity level of 94 percent to 97 percent, compared to significantly lower diagnostic success rates for CT scans...Clinical evidence of antitumor activity was observed in three of the five PSA responders, including improvement of lesions, resolution of abdominal lymph node disease and

The company selected the 300-mg dose, the highest dose studied, for further testing...Data were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in Orlando, Fla

ChemoCentryx Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., presented clinical and preclinical data from studies of the company's drug candidate Traficet-EN (CCX282-B), a first-in-class, orally active, anti-inflammatory agent that targets the chemokine receptor known as CCR9, at the 2006 Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America's National Research and Clinical Conference/Fifth Annual Advances in the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases meeting being held this week in Miami...Schwarz Pharma AG, of Monheim, Germany

pulled in a $30 million Series C financing to continue clinical development of obesity drugs Contrave and Excalia...Results from the first 24 weeks of a Phase II/III trial in 250 patients demonstrated that patients receiving the highest dose of naltrexone, which was still lower than the standard commercially available dose, lost an average of 7.52 percent weight from baseline as compared to 1.03 percent in the placebo group...Anesiva expects to file a common technical document/new drug application for

Clinical trials are expected to begin later this year...MGI Pharma Inc., of Minneapolis, said the European Medicines Agency has granted Dacogen (decitabine) for Injection orphan designation in acute myeloid leukemia...Dacogen is being co-developed by MGI Pharma and Janssen-Cilag, a unit of New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson

A.P. Pharma Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., said it finalized the protocol for a Phase III trial of APF530 with the FDA and also received approval for the protocol from the governing IRB overseeing the study...Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., said initial clinical data from the low-dose cohorts of a Phase II trial of ISIS 301012 as a single-agent in patients with high cholesterol produced rapid, dose-dependent and prolonged reductions of its target, apoB-100...Clinical sites are in

7TM Pharma A/S, of Hørsholm, Denmark, reported positive Phase I/II results showing that TM30338 met both the primary and secondary objectives, demonstrating that the drug candidate is safe and well tolerated in humans...Patients previously in the mid- and high-dose groups remained stable with mean percent decrease from baseline PASI scores of 61 percent and 66 percent, respectively, after 48 weeks of treatment

And the company intends to conduct some higher-dose, shorter-course clinical trials in adults...Proceeds will be used to conduct clinical testing of the company's GP88 Biopsy Staining Kit for breast cancer