WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Viagene Inc. said Tuesday that the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee has approved Phase I trials to test Viagene's HIV immunotherapeutic. The trial, which is to start around the end of the year, will be the first gene therapeutic-based commercial proposal aimed directly at treating HIV infection, the company said. "There have been other gene therapy trials, but they were not directed at HIV," said Steve Mento, Viagene's vice president of research and development. "They were

Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. said it has licensed commercial rights to the gene for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor protein discovered at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The license provides the Cambridge, Mass., company with worldwide, non-exclusive rights to the gene for the development of TKT's proprietary gene therapy technology. Financial terms were not disclosed. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.

Somatix Therapy Corp. said Tuesday that it strengthened its potential patent position in gene therapy by licensing methods for using a patientLs genetically modified tumor cells to stimulate an immune response against cancer. Somatix (NASDAQ:SOMA) of Alameda, Calif., received the exclusive worldwide license from Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, which have filed for a U.S. patent on the methods. The approach to cancer

David Foster has been named vice president of finance and chief financial officer at Collagen Corp. He will continue to manage the Palo Alto, Calif., company's (NASDAQ:CGEN) MIS group and perform accounting and investor relations functions. Collagen develops, manufactures and markets biomedical devices for the treatment of defective, diseased, traumatized or aging human tissues. Marc C. Ostro, co-founder of The Liposome Company, was appointed to the board at VimRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. of

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- A second group of AIDS patients in Miami on Monday started a cell therapy that produced startling results against AIDS-related complications in a small Phase I study. The ex vivo cell therapy, developed by Applied Immune Sciences Inc., will be used with 10 patients. The company is also pursuing cell therapy applications for treating bone marrow transplantation and cancer. The second study is technically still a Phase I trial, according to Jerry Ford, AIS's manager of

BioChem Pharma Inc. announced Monday that it has entered into a collaborative research agreement with AB Astra of Sweden. The $5 million agreement includes an up-front payment, and research, funding and milestone payments made to the Laval, Quebec company. The deal is for a three-year period, but any royalties that come from products will be split. The research is to involve a lead compound, BCH-150, which is in the preclinical stage of development. This compound and others are synthetic

Biomira Inc. said Monday it has received regulatory approval for clinical trials of its Tru-Scint cancer in vivo diagnostic products in Germany. Oncologists and nuclear medicine specialists will conduct patient testing at 12 cancer centers and hospitals throughout Germany to determine the safety and efficacy of the products, the Edmonton, Alberta, company (ASE:BRA) said. The products to be tested are Tru-Scint AD for detecting breast and ovary adenocarcinomas, Tru-Scint SQ for squamous cell

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Epitope Inc. on Monday blamed false rumors for a steep slide in its stock price last Friday, when it shed $2.63 a share to close at $16. Some investors see a darker culprit in a large overhang of short selling involving Epitope stock. Short selling involves a temporary loan of stock that is sold on the hopes that the stock price will drift lower so that the replacement stock can be purchased later at a lower price. "They're stuck in the stock," Robert Lempert, an investor

A newly formed Irish-based biotechnology firm, Trinity Biotech plc, filed last week with the U.S. Securities an Exchange Commission a registration for an initial public stock offering, according to Reuters news service. Trinity's planned IPO is for the sale of 300,000 units, which each would consist of four American depository shares representing four common shares plus two class A and one class B stock purchase warrants. The company was formed last January to acquire, develop and market rapid

Vestar Inc. said Monday that animal studies of the company's DaunoXome, its patented liposomal formulation of the established cancer drug daunorubicin, showed a nearly tenfold increase in the amount of drug accumulated in tumors, resulting in 10 times greater potency compared with the unencapsulated form of the drug. The preclinical results, published in the June 15 issue of Cancer Research, substantiate the emerging clinical data from Phase I/II trials of the drug against solid tumors and

MicroProbe Corp. said it has been issued two U.S. patents, No. 5,124,444 for the use of lactams in methods that promote nucleic acid extraction, and No. 5,105,730 claiming the use of lactams in the hybridization of nucleic acids in diagnostic applications of DNA probes. Lactams are a class of laboratory reagents that remain chemically stable at room temperature and are ideal for promoting the extraction and hybridization of nucleic acids, either in the form of DNA or RNA, the Garden Grove, Calif

The New England Journal of Medicine has signed an agreement with Lifetime Medical Television to produce a weekly, physician-directed medicinal news program based on content from the weekly magazine. The half-hour series , titled This Week in The New England Journal of Medicine, will be broadcast nationally at least twice each Sunday on Lifetime beginning this fall. It is the NEJM's first television venture. The program will focus on the NEJM's articles and will occasionally deal with issues

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. H On the heels of its initial stock offering, PerSeptive Biosystems Inc., based here, said Monday that its president was fired after filing suit last week against the company and its directors over his claim that he was stripped of power. PerSeptive, whose stock went public on May 29, said its board on Monday named company founder Noubar B. Afeyan to replace John E. Coutre as president and chief executive officer. The change at the helm shouldn't disrupt the company's efforts

The Association of Biotechnology Companies last week urged President Bush to sign legislation that includes federal funding of fetal tissue research for medical purposes. The National Institutes of Health reauthorization bill, H.R. 2507, would nullify a ban put in place in November 1989 by Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan on the use of federal funds for research involving fetal tissue. In the letter to Bush, Thomas Wiggans, president of the ABC wrote, "We believe the current

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- ChemTrak Inc. said last week that it has temporarily suspended shipments of its self-contained AccuMeter Total Cholesterol test after discovering a manufacturing problem that effected certain lots of the product. Production resumed after the problem was identified and additional quality-control procedures were instituted to prevent a recurrence of the problem, ChemTrak said. Product in inventory was checked. ChemTrak (NASDAQ:CMTR) said that as a result of the suspension of

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Organogenesis Inc. is at least window- shopping for a partner to help send its prospective products into the marketplace. "We're not negotiating anything," emphasized Thomas M. Tully, Organogenesis' president and chief operating officer, when asked about the discussions. What Organogenesis has been doing the past few months is meeting informally with a succession of medical device companies that could play a potential role in co-development or co-marketing Organogenesis

James G. Smith, who joined Applied Immune Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:AISX) in September as senior vice president, has been named to the additional post of chief operating officer. The Menlo Park, Calif., company is conducting clinical trials on cell therapy devices. John J. Moulds, chief operating officer and vice president of Gamma Biologicals Inc., was named president of the Houston- based company. Gamma (ASE:GBL) manufactures and markets diagnostic reagents and biotech instruments. Kevin M

Immunomedics Inc. said that its colorectal cancer imaging agent, ImmuRAID-CEA, has induced virtually no immunogenic response or human anti-mouse antibody (HAMA) response in more than 200 patients given a single injection. The Morris Plains, N.J., company (NASDAQ:IMMU) has applied for FDA approval to market ImmuRAID-CEA for colorectal cancer and has also sought Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products approval in Europe. Most other products that employ an intact antibody have induced a HAMA

Idec Pharmaceuticals Inc. said last week that it received FDA approval to start clinical testing of the Specifid antibodies that the company intends to use in a commercial therapeutic product for treating cancer. Idec (NASDAQ:IDPH) is already conducting human clinical trials of an Idec-made Specifid antibodies in a treatment for non- Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma. "For marketing approval and commercialization, we plan to use material manufactured by our European partner, Boehringer Ingelheim