BIOTECH STOCKS CONTINUE TO STUMBLE Recording its seventh straight loss, the AMEX Biotechnology Index dropped 2.06 on Friday to close at 144.07, inching toward its April 28 low of 131.52. The index was down 12.02 for the week. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 2.85 on Friday to 3,354.36. Xoma Corp. (NASDAQ:XOMA) dropped $1.13 to close at $13. The stock was easily the most heavily traded biotechnology issue, with more than 1.7 million shares changing hands. Rival Centocor Inc. (NASDAQ:CNTO
Applied Bioscience International Inc. said Thursday that it has signed an agreement for one of its subsidiaries, ETC Corp., to purchase for cash the assets of Southeastern Capital Corp.'s commercial laboratory business, National Express Laboratories Inc. Both companies' boards have approved the transaction, APBI (NASDAQ:APBI) of East Millstone, N.J., said. The deal is expected to be completed this month. NATEX, an established commercial testing laboratory group that serves the environmental
EcoScience Corp. said Wednesday that it has entered into an agreement with The Terminix International Co. to develop and market biological termite control products. EcoSciences' techniques will use a naturally occurring fungus, which is safer than chemical pesticides, to repel and kill termites. "Laboratory studies have shown efficacy," Jeanie Faulkner, chief financial officer, told BioWorld. "We will be doing field studies this summer." Faulkner said biopesticides will never completely replace
The first genetic therapy trial involving the direct transfer of modified human genetic material into a human, announced this week by the University of Michigan Medical Center, is seen as offering a potentially broad new avenue to treating disease. University of Michigan Medical Center (UMMC) researchers on June 4 treated a 67-year-old woman with metastatic melanoma by injecting genes into a cancerous skin tumor. The UMMC trial was also the first genetic therapy using a non-viral vector
LOS ANGELES -- NeoRx Corp. of Seattle said its patented rhenium-186 targeted radiotherapeutic was shown in animal tests to deliver twice the normal dose of radiation to targeted tumors while nearly halving the amount of unwanted radiation found in the blood, where it causes bone marrow toxicity. "These preclinical results demonstrate that NeoRx's pre- targeting technology can improve the therapeutic index in a dramatic fashion," said John M. Reno, NeoRx's director of research and product
After meeting with FDA officials about its E5 anti-endotoxin monoclonal antibody, Xoma Corp. said Thursday that it will submit additional data and analyses from the two completed randomized, multicenter, placebo-controlled E5 studies. The company announced June 4 that the FDA might request additional clinical testing of E5 to support Xoma's product license application, a move that sent Xoma's stock (NASDAQ:XOMA) down. The Berkeley, Calif., company hopes that the additional information it plans
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Quadra Logic Technologies Inc. announced Thursday that it filed a preliminary prospectus for a Canadian offering that it expects will raise between $15 million and $25 million (Canadian), or $12.6 million to $21 million U.S. at current exchange rates. The offering is for units consisting of one Quadra Logic share (NASDAQ:QLTIF) and one warrant for the later purchase of one- half of a share.The number of units to be sold and their price range has yet to be set
Genzyme Corp. said Wednesday that its U.K. subsidiary, Genzyme Ltd., has acquired the phospholipid business unit of Enzymatix Ltd. of Cambridge, England. Susan Cogswell, Genzyme's (NASDQ:GENZ) director of investor relations, said the Cambridge, Mass, company paid $1.8 million for the acquisition and should bring the company $1 million to $2 million in product sales for the rest of the year. "The acquisition is positioning to make us one of the leading phospholipid suppliers worldwide
SAN DIEGO -- Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday that it is reaching out to Houghten Pharmaceuticals Inc. for use of a peptide screening technology to help develop therapeutics to treat Type 2 diabetes. Amylin is not alone in seeking out Houghten Pharmaceuticals. Privately held HPI is already helping Bayer AG's Miles Laboratories hone in on potential drugs in the anti-viral field and recently signed with Procter & Gamble for work on oral health care products. For those pondering
LOS ANGELES -- Scientists from Immunomedics Inc. reported Wednesday encouraging results from a 10-patient clinical test of its LL2 labeled monoclonal antibody product against B-cell lymphoma. "One patient had a complete remission, all disease undetectable after therapy, for about one year, and this was for an extremely low dose of the agent," said Carl M. Pinsky, Immunomedics' vice president of medical affairs, told a meeting here of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. Three patients given
North American Vaccine Inc said it was issued a European patent covering its pertussis vaccine, an acellular pertussis toxoid. The patent covers both the vaccine and the method of production, the Beltsville, Md., company (ASE:NVX) said. The patent also covers the preparation of other toxoids, the company said. The invention has also been patented in the U.S., and patents are pending in other markets throughout the world. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
Oculon Corp. announced Wednesday that it has completed a fourth-round, $9.4 million private placement to continue the development of its products to detect and prevent cataracts. Lawrence Kinet, chairman and chief operating officer of the company, said Oculon has raised $21.8 million through private funding since its founding in 1987. "Without additional funding, this latest round will take us through the end of 1993," he said. According to Kinet, most of the $9.4 million will be used to fund
Liposome Technology Inc. said it signed an exclusive agreement with Apache Medical Systems Inc. for review and analysis of safety and efficacy data from pivotal Phase III clinical trials of Amphocil. Apache of Washington, D.C., will be responsible for entering and analyzing all data from three multicenter clinical trials of Amphocil, LTI's lipid-complexed amphotericin B formulation designed for use in treating patients with life-threatening systemic fungal infections. LTI will use Apache's
InControl Inc., a biomedical device company, said Wednesday that it has raised $12.5 million in a second round of financing. Figures were unavailable for the previous private funding, said Gena Sears, director of market planning for the company. The Redmond, Wash., company is developing products to control atrial fibrillation and monitor cardiac signals. The products are still in early trials. Sears also said the company, which was founded in 1990, has no immediate plans of going public
Triplex Pharmaceutical Corp. was awarded three grants by the NIH to evaluate a new class of pharmaceuticals called triplex compounds that exert a therapeutic effect by modifying gene expression. Triplex compounds are modified oligonucleotides that are designed to prevent the body from producing disease-causing proteins by interfering with transcription. Triplex of The Woodlands, Texas, is developing such compounds as potential treatments for viral infections, cancer and cardiovascular disease
WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- Cephalon Inc. said Tuesday that Schering-Plough Corp. made a $4 million payment to continue a collaboration aimed at developing therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease. Cephalon stock (NASDAQ:CEPH) closed Tuesday unchanged at $9.25 a share. Under a 1990 agreement to develop therapeutics and other neurodegenerative disorders, Schering (NYSE:SGP) of Madison, N.J., was to make up to $20 million in payments to support the collaboration over five years. The most recent payment
Corvas International Inc. said it granted Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Diagnostics Inc. unit worldwide rights to manufacture and distribute prothrombin time (PT) clotting tests incorporating Corvas' recombinant tissue factor (rTF). Introduced around 1935, PT tests are used to determine the blood clotting ability of patients. Using Corvas' rTF factor offers a more accurate and reproducible clotting times than traditional tests, which employ thromboplastins derived from animal tissue to determine
In a continuing battle among co-marketing partners, Germany's Behringwerke A.G. and its U.S. affiliate said Tuesday they have sued Immunex Corp. in an effort to keep selling a granulocyte colony macrophage stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in the United States. Immunex in April sued Behringwerke and its U.S. affiliate, Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceutical Inc., alleging that the two companies shipped at least 10,000 vials of Hoechst's GM-CSF, trade named Prokine, as free samples to Immunex's hospital
KIRKLAND, Wash. -- ProCyte Corp. said Tuesday said it was issued a U.S. patent for a hair-growth compound.that the company discovered during the course of wound-healing research. An initial university-based pilot study in Europe of ProCyte's Tricomin product applied topically on men with male-pattern baldness was completed in April. The company expects to complete its analysis of the data in a few months, Leonard Patt, Procyte's director of pharmaceutical research, said Tuesday. ProCyte, whose
Repligen Corp. and Centocor Inc., former partners turned adversaries over a 1987 agreement involving human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), on Tuesday declared peace on a lawsuit filed nine and one-half weeks ago. Repligen of Cambridge, Mass., filed suit on April 3, contending that Centocor had overstepped an agreement not to compete with Repligen on HIV therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics for HIV, which causes AIDS. As part of the settlement, Centocor of Malvern, Pa., reaffirmed the non
BIOTECH STOCKS CONTINUE TO STUMBLE Recording its seventh straight loss, the AMEX Biotechnology Index dropped 2.06 on Friday to close at 144.07, inching toward its April 28 low of 131.52. The index was down 12.02 for the week. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 2.85 on Friday to 3,354.36. Xoma Corp. (NASDAQ:XOMA) dropped $1.13 to close at $13. The stock was easily the most heavily traded biotechnology issue, with more than 1.7 million shares changing hands. Rival Centocor Inc. (NASDAQ:CNTO