Other compounds have potential clinical applications in the treatment of asthma...Vertex plans to use the information as part of its chemogenomics discovery effort, which seeks to design multiple drugs in parallel based on structurally similar targets in gene families

The company plans to initiate Phase IIa studies in the middle of the year. • MGI Pharma Inc., of Minneapolis, said interim Phase II results for irofulven in ovarian cancer showed that five of 15 evaluable patients experienced a partial response of greater than a 50 percent reduction in measurable tumor mass...The other eight patients discontinued treatment due to malaise and fatigue and progressive disease...Other side effects were bone marrow suppression and mild to modest nausea and vomiting

to distribute Axon’s GenePix 4000A microarray scanner as part of Motorola’s bioarray solution...Financial terms were not disclosed. • Skye PharmaTech Inc., of Toronto, received shareholder approval to change its name to SYN*X Pharma Inc...The name change is in response to the confusion created by the similarity of the company’s name to Skye Pharma plc. • Sonus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bothell, Wash., said it renegotiated the U.S

In addition, the company raised $4 million with an unnamed institution and three accredited investors. • SangStat Medical Corp., of Fremont, Calif., said that a British court has rejected an attempt by Novartis Pharma AG, of Basel, Switzerland, to have the UK marketing authorization of SangStat's SangCya (cyclosporine) oral solution revoked...Tularik intend to use this new structure to speed the development of novel antibacterial drugs. • Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co

Prior to its acquisition by Millennium, LeukoSite had submitted to MorphoSys three targets to develop therapeutic antibodies against inflammation diseases...The data will be used to support an FDA filing made in August 1999 for the use of DigiTAb in the treatment of digoxin poisoning. • SkyePharma plc, of London, signed an agreement under which Bioglan Pharma plc, of Hitchin, England, will manufacture, market and distribute Solarase in Europe

Arius is the second company to go public from Toronto-based Skye Pharmatech Inc.'s Sky Incubator Program...Ilex will use the proceeds to accelerate its clinical trials and preclinical research. (See BioWorld Today, March 8, 2000, p. 1.) • Infectious Disease Research Institute, of Seattle, which is working with Corixa Corp., also of Seattle, received a $15 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a vaccine to prevent leishmaniasis, a skin and visceral disease endemic in the

Other financial terms were not disclosed. • Biogen Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said an arbitration panel ruled that Madison, N.J.-based Schering-Plough Corp.’s Rebetron is not a combination product as defined under a 1979 agreement between the two companies, and therefore, Biogen is not entitled to royalties...The trials are designed to study FMdC in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents. • Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, said it launched Myriad-ProNet.com, its public protein

Prior to its acquisition by Millennium, LeukoSite had submitted to MorphoSys three targets to develop therapeutic antibodies against inflammation diseases

Proceeds will be used to fund the development of Inflazyme's IPL576 series in asthma and Aventis Pharma's treatment for allergies...Consequently, Anticort then modulates the immune response of infected individuals, leading to a more effective response to HIV and other autoimmune diseases. • Synsorb Biotech Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, said it received 1.1 million common shares in BCY Ventures Inc., of Toronto, as part of an agreement in which Synsorb assigned to BCY its license of certain

BioChem Pharma received a $54 million debenture to be paid out of future cash flows. • Boston Life Sciences Inc., of Boston, said enrollment of its Phase III trial for the use of Altropane to diagnose early Parkinson’s disease has been completed

BioChem will continue to manufacture the drug at its Quebec facilities...The company plans to initiate a dose-escalating study in the second quarter that will evaluate the safety and feasibility of the stents to reduce restenosis. • Calypte Biomedical Corp., of Alameda, Calif., said its founder and chief scientific officer, Howard Urnovitz, and its chairman, William Boeger, established a new company named Chronix Biomedical that will focus on novel ways to detect aberrant genes in individuals with

Sugen will retain exclusive, worldwide rights to commercialize products resulting from the collaboration, while Evotec will be entitled to royalties. • Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Baltimore, said it acquired exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to a novel anesthetic compound developed by ProQuest Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lawrence, Kansas

Patients continued to show favorable trends, with more than 95 percent of the patients remaining stable or improved after 12 treatments administered over a 16-month time span. • Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said its gene-targeted drug, AP1903, was granted orphan drug status by the FDA for the treatment of acute graft-vs.-host disease. • BioSignal Inc., of Montreal, said it completed the delivery of a 500,000 data-point screen to BASF Pharma, of Ludwigshafen, Germany

Alexion received exclusive worldwide rights to novel anti-inflammatory technologies and to associated therapeutic products expected to have broad application in patients with atherosclerosis, unstable angina, stroke and other vascular disorders. • Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., of San Diego, said preliminary efficacy results from three Phase II cardiac surgery trials with Oxygent, its intravascular oxygen carrier, showed that Oxygent eliminated or reduced the need for donor blood transfusions

The company expects to use net proceeds for FluMist regulatory filings, manufacturing and commercialization, and for the development of a second-generation formulation of FluMist. • Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc, of Melbourn, England, said BASF Pharma, of Ludwigshafen, Germany, initiated Phase III trials of the fully human anti-TNF monoclonal antibody D2E7 in rheumatoid arthritis...The entry into Phase III triggers a milestone payment from BASF Pharma to Cambridge Antibody. • Hemispherx

The institute will have access to mice from Lexicon's OmniBank library of knockout mouse clones for use in determining the function of genes that represent potential drug targets...SemBioSys will supply the product to NADII, which will have exclusive rights to the product

Cell Genesys will receive royalties on worldwide sales of Clontech's research kits and any future products employing retroviral gene delivery technology. • Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., of Philadelphia, said its wholly owned subsidiary, Hemispherx Biopharma Europe, has been awarded a research and development grant from Rhone-Poulenc Rorer SA, of Antony, France, which recently merged with Hoechst Marion Roussel AG, of Frankfurt, Germany, to become Aventis Pharma...Keryx intends to use the proceeds to

Early products could be a series of novel vaccines against cancer and other diseases. • Incara Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said its board authorized the initiation of a stock repurchase program whereby up to $2 million of the company's stock may be repurchased in the open market over the next two months. • Inex Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Burnaby, British Columbia, signed an investment agreement with the federal government's Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) under

The deals, with SmithKline Beecham, Kyowa Hakko Kogyo and Bayer Corp., relate to Phase Zero, Pharmagene's system for target identification and validation, and for testing drug leads in human tissue before they enter the clinic...Pharmagene said it now has 12 international pharmaceutical company clients. • Supratek Pharma Inc., of Montreal, said it achieved gene expression comparable to that of viral vectors, without the associated safety concerns