No matter which side they fell on the Provenge debate, analysts generally agreed the Zytiga news bodes well for San Francisco-based Medivation and partner Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, which halted their Phase III AFFIRM trial of MDV3100 last fall in advanced prostate cancer following chemotherapy. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 4, 2011.) Medivation's Phase III PREVAIL trial, now under way, has enrolled 1 ,700 men with advanced prostate cancer who are chemo-naïve in a trial that is similar in

In other news, BioLineRx received approval from the Israeli Ministry of Health to begin a Phase II trial of BL-7040 for inflammatory bowel disease...The inhibitors are designed to treat Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

The big pharma has said it plans to nominate a slate of candidates for election to Illumina's board. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 26, 2012...VistaGen Therapeutics Inc., of South San Francisco, said it inked a drug rescue deal with Cato BioVentures and its CRO partner, Cato Research, to collaborate on identifying, evaluating, rescuing and developing small-molecule drug candidates that were discontinued in late-stage preclinical development due to heart or liver toxicity, despite positive efficacy data

Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, a unit of the Roche Group, said the FDA accepted its biologics license application and granted priority review for pertuzumab in combination with Herceptin (trastuzumab) and docetaxel chemotherapy in HER2-positive metastatic or locally recurrent, unresectable breast cancer patients who have not received previous treatment or whose disease has relapsed after adjuvant therapy...Jennerex Inc., of San Francisco, published data in Molecular Therapy that validated

Rights to TP508 will be returned to the University of Texas...Innate Pharma SA, of Marseilles, France, said its scientific co-founder Eric Vivier, a professor at the Center of Immunology of Marseille-Luminy, published preclinical data in Science showing mice that do not express the NK activating receptor NKp46 have an enhanced resistance to some viral infections...Innate Pharma and INSERM, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, have filed patent applications relating to that

Pherecydes Pharma SA, of Paris, said it received €900,000 (US$1.2 million) from France's General Directorate for Armaments to partly finance the PACOBURNS project, which is set up to explore the possibility of using bacteriophages to combat bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics, especially skin infections

NovAliX SAS, of Strasbourg, France, is partnering with Teijin Pharma Ltd., of Tokyo, to develop drug candidates against multiple targets across different therapeutic areas...to explore the feasibility of a controlled-release formulation of a compound for delivery to the joints...Sanofi SA, of Paris, entered a $3.1 million collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, to identify drug targets for Type I and Type II diabetes

DFH Pharma Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., is collaborating with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop the next generation of HIV maturation inhibitor drugs...1 million collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, to identify drug targets for Type I and Type II diabetes

Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, and Theravance Inc., of South San Francisco, reported that Astellas is terminating the global licensing agreement for Vibativ (telavancin) for injection, a bactericidal, once-daily lipoglycopeptide antibiotic discovered by Theravance...Vibativ was approved in Europe last year for the treatment of adults with nosocomial pneumonia, including ventilator-associated pneumonia, known or suspected to be caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) when other

Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, and Theravance Inc., of South San Francisco, reported that Astellas is terminating the global licensing agreement for Vibativ (telavancin) for injection, a bactericidal, once-daily lipoglycopeptide antibiotic discovered by Theravance...LEO Pharma A/S, of Ballerup, Denmark, entered a multimillion dollar collaboration with Virobay Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., to develop a first-in-class oral compound for psoriasis

DFH Pharma Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., is collaborating with CiVentiChem LLC, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., to develop the next generation of HIV maturation inhibitor drugs...Oncodesign SA, of Dijon, France, and Ipsen SA, of Paris, entered a research collaboration to discover and develop LRRK2 kinase inhibitors as potential treatments for Parkinson's and other diseases, using Oncodesign's Nanocyclix technology...to the firm's existing facility in Winston-Salem, part of a restructuring designed to

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tarrytown, N.Y., said it signed a nonexclusive license and partial settlement agreement with South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. (now part of the Roche Group) relating to U.S...Regeneron received a nonexclusive license to certain patents relating to VEGF receptor programs...Zealand Pharma A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, received €3 million (US$3.917 million) in milestone payments under a potential €€140 million license agreement with Helsinn Healthcare SA, of

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of Princeton, N.J., and the Gladstone Institutes, of San Francisco, formed a discovery-based research collaboration to identify and validate Alzheimer's disease targets...Covis Pharma Sarl, of Zug, Switzerland, agreed with GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, to acquire commercial rights to Fortaz (ceftazidime), Zinacef (cefuroxime), Lanoxin (digoxin), Parnate (tranylcypromine sulfate) and Zantac injection (ranitidine hydrochloride) in the U.S

Acumen Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, Calif., said partner Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. (formerly Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck & Co. Inc.) terminated the companies' agreement to develop amyloid-derived diffusible ligand targeted antibody therapeutics and diagnostics for Alzheimer's disease...AstraZeneca plc, of London, and Prosidion Ltd., of Tokyo, a subsidiary of Astellas Pharma Inc., entered into an option agreement, under which Prosidion grants to AstraZeneca an exclusive

It plans to use the technology to generate libraries of protein scaffolds for discovery of drugs, diagnostics and binding reagents...In separate news, Isis said it added three new drugs to its development pipeline: ISIS-APOARx, which is designed to reduce Lpa, an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease

In other news, Boehringer said it randomized the final patient to treatment in its Phase III program of BI 201335, an oral protease inhibitor for chronic hepatitis C virus...Santarus has licensed certain exclusive rights from Pharming to commercialize Rhucin in North America for the treatment of acute attacks of HAE and other future indications

Oxigene Inc., of South San Francisco, and Azanta Danmark A/S, of Hellerup, Denmark, created an alliance to provide access to the vascular disrupting agent Zybrestat (fosbretabulin) to treat patients in Europe and Canada with anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) on a compassionate use basis

In other news, Compugen said company President and CEO Anat Cohen-Dayag presented data from its antibody target discovery platform at the 7th Annual European Antibody Congress in Geneva...Novartis has European rights to Lucentis, which is partnered with Genentech Inc., of San Francisco, a member of the Roche Group

The news, which sent its shares (NASDAQ:TSPT) soaring 21.7 percent, or $1.51, to close Thursday at $8.48, came less than two weeks after Transcept won FDA approval for Intermezzo, a sublingual version of zolpidem intended specifically for middle-of-the-night waking followed by difficulty returning to sleep