Amgen Inc. announced late Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with Chugai Pharmaceuticals Inc. resolving disputes over intellectual property rights to granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). Under the agreement, the case pending in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will be resolved by Chugai's disclaimer of two Chugai patents that were the subject of the suit. In addition, Chugai will grant Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) an irrevocable, exclusive, royalty-free license for all

Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc. and Verax Corp. have formed an alliance to provide bioprocessing expertise to the pharmaceutical industry worldwide, the companies said. Under the agreement, Allelix (TSE:AXB) will make available to Verax customers its expertise in bacterial and fungal expression systems. Verax of Lebanon, N.H., is a provider of bioreactors, products and contract manufacturing services with expertise in mammalian cell culture. The deal will give Allelix access to Verax's

Prices of bioscience shares turned down Tuesday, with 18 stocks losing $1 or more. The AMEX Biotechnology Index fell 3.14 points to 148.27. Immune Response Corp. (NASDAQ:IMNR) was the most active biotech stock, losing $2.50 to $18 on 798,000 shares. Preliminary Phase II data on the company's therapeutic HIV vaccine has met with some analyst skepticism. Curative Technologies Inc. dropped $2.13 to $9.50 in heavy trading on the second day after announcing that it had received an FDA warning

Deprenyl Research Ltd. said it has created a new company, Bone Health Inc., to develop a vitamin D analog and other products to treat osteoporosis. The vitamin D analog, One-alpha D2, increases bone density. Deprenyl Research has assigned exclusive Canadian rights to the compound to Bone Health. The orally administered compound is in U.S. safety trials in post-menopausal women. The trial will end this month, and data is expected to be available in September, the company said. The trial is

Telor Ophthalmic Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday that it has completed an oversubscribed $8.8 million private placement of convertible preferred stock. New investors in this round included New Enterprise Associates, Chemicals and Materials Enterprise Associates, and SED Ventures S.A. of France. Previous investors included Commonwealth BioVentures, Hambro Ventures International, Asset Management, Prince Ventures, Venrock Associates and DSV Partners. Telor in April began Phase I/II clinical

MedClone Inc. said it has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with the University of California that gives the Los Angeles-based biopharmaceutical company commercial rights to certain monoclonal antibodies. The antibodies, developed by Dr. Richard Weisbart, chief of rheumatology at the UCLA San Fernando Valley Program, may be useful in the treatment of certain human autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus nephritis, the company said. MedClone plans

University Patents Inc. said it has reached an agreement to share income paid to the Southern Research Institute from sales of U.S. Bioscience Inc.'s Ethyol chemoprotective product. University Patents, a licensing agent for university discoveries, had an agreement to represent the Birmingham, Ala., institute's interests in the product. However, the institute independently reached its agreement with U.S. Bioscience. Under the new agreement, University Patents (AMEX:UPT) of Westport, Conn., has

A cancer vaccine, developed by Biomira Inc., containing an adjuvant by Ribi ImmunoChem Research Inc. has stimulated an immune response in patients, according to preliminary Phase I data. The trial showed that the patients, whose extensively metastasized ovarian cancers had resisted standard chemotherapy, produced increased levels of antibodies to the cancer antigen that was used as the vaccine. Two of the 10 patients in the preliminary safety trial showed some transient shrinkage of their

GenPharm International Inc. has received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that it will receive patents on two of its transgenic mouse strains. The patents will be the first to issue on transgenic animals since the Harvard oncomouse was patented in 1988, said Jonathan MacQuitty, president and chief executive. One patent covers the first of the Mountain View., Calif., company's 10 strains of transgenic immunodeficient (TIM) mice. The mice are being developed for

Bioscience shares showed little movement Monday despite broad gains in other market indexes. The AMEX Biotechnology Index gained 0.04 points to 151.41. Mycogen Inc. gained $1.38 to $15 after the stock (NASDAQ:MYCO) was recommended by the Wall Street Edge Stockline, an investment advisory service. Curative Technologies Inc. lost 38 cents to $11.63. On Friday, the company said the FDA had issued it a warning letter regarding procedures at its wound-care centers. Peter Drake, an analyst at Vector

Immune Response Corp. on Monday defended its HIV therapeutic vaccine after Kidder, Peabody analyst Robert Kupor said he was not impressed with preliminary data from Phase II clinical trials. On Friday, Kupor wrote that patients in the low-dose group showed a 10 percent decline in T4 cell counts, while patients in the medium-dose group showed a 10 percent increase. However, he wrote, "the 'dose-response' demonstrated in these two groups is rendered meaningless, in our opinion, by the fact that

Sibia Inc. on Monday said it has signed a three-year collaborative research agreement with Eli Lilly and Co. to develop drug discovery technology and drugs for central nervous system diseases. As part of the deal, Lilly made a $4 million equity investment in the privately held La Jolla, Calif., company. The collaboration will develop assays that will enable the companies to test a variety of molecules that might interact with calcium channels. The drug discovery efforts will target

University researchers have devised a synthetic assembly of molecules that shows promise as an AIDS vaccine. The macromolecule vaccine, created by scientists from Rockefeller University and New York University medical school, induced specific antibodies against the gp120 portion of the AIDS virus that neutralized the virus in lab cultures, and elicited killer T cells in living animals. The researchers took the portion of the gp120 coat protein that is most able to stimulate antibody production

The first field test of a transgenic apple, developed jointly by Plant Research Laboratory of Modesto, Calif., and the University of California, Davis, has begun in Northern California. The project intends to eliminate the need for insecticides to grow the $1 billion annual U.S. apple crop. The transgenic apples carry a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which will code for a protein that is lethal to the key pest of apples, the coddling moth. Marker genes have also been

Immune Response Corp. and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. on Friday reported that their therapeutic HIV vaccine stimulates both antibody and T cell responses in patients, according to preliminary evaluation of Phase II clinical trial data. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 60 HIV-positive but asymptomatic patients was conducted to determine the vaccine's ability to stimulate an immune response at dosages of between 50 micrograms and 400 micrograms. The vaccine uses a whole killed virus

Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday that it has filed an investigational new drug application to begin clinical trials of its transdermal drug delivery patch to treat a nail fungal infection. The 48-hour patch contains an undisclosed antibiotic or anti- fungal to treat onychomycosis, which results in splitting, thickening, roughness and discoloration of the nail. Current treatments include orally administered antibiotics and topical medications. Topical treatments have been limited by the

Fifty percent of patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis experienced significant reductions in swollen and tender joints when given mid to high doses of Seragen Inc.'s interleukin-2 fusion toxin, the company reported. The patients with severe, progressive rheumatoid arthritis had not responded adequately to available therapies. According to the Phase I/II data presented at the recent TPI Conference on Monoclonal Antibodies in London, nine of the 18 patients who received the mid or high dose

Bioscience stocks ended the week mixed, but the AMEX Biotechnology Index gained 3 percent overall and is up more than 5 percent in the month. The index gained 0.27 points to 151.37 on Friday. Chiron Corp. (NASDAQ:CHIR) rebounded $1.75 to $47.25 after Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Jeffrey Casdin recommended purchase of the stock "with extra emphasis." Casdin, who put a $50-per-share breakup value on the company, cited the "unexpected potential" for near-term contributions from its beta-interferon

Enzytech Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., named Russell D. Hays president and chief executive officer. He was vice president and general manager of immunotherapy at Baxter Healthcare Corp. Enzytech is developing delivery systems for therapeutic proteins and peptides. Steven T. Frankel has been named president and chief operating officer of Quidel Corp., and Scott L. Glenn, formerly president and CEO, was named chairman and CEO. Frankel was president of Becton Dickinson Asia Pacific. The San Diego