Bio-Technology General Corp. has begun a Phase II efficacy study of BioTropin, its recombinant human growth hormone in pancreatic cancer patients. Recent short-term studies have shown that cancer patients treated with Bio-Technology General's human growth hormone responded to the anabolic growth hormone. The company is also conducting clinical studies aimed at assessing the utility of human growth hormone in the treatment of HIV-infected patients and in the prevention of muscle atrophy in the
Biotech Research Laboratories said it was awarded a four-year contract for $450,000 from the University of North Carolina to test large numbers of plant derivatives to combat HIV. The contract is part of a grant the university was awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, part of the National Institutes of Health. The grant allows the company and the university to attempt to isolate and identify a variety of potentially therapeutic agents. The plants to be used
Elan Corp. plc of Athlone, Ireland, said the FDA has approved the manufacture of Cardizem CD capsules at its Athlone facility. Elan manufactures all Cardizem SR sold by Marion Merrell Dow, but has not yet started making Cardizem CD. Sales of Cardizem SR and CD in North America for the year ending Aug. 31 were about $515 million, up from $344 million for the previous year. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
Harrier Inc. of Los Angeles (NASDAQ:HARE) said this week that it had filed three patent applications on its glycosylation technology for pharmaceuticals, which it co-owns with the University of Michigan. "Compared to the Ferrier glycosylation process (the prior art in this area), we use a different catalyst and a different reagent," Harrier President Kevin DeVito said. "You can't use the Ferrier process to glycosylate most of the drugs we're looking at," he said, "because it's too harsh
Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:IPIC) reported Thursday the massed results of its extensive, international Phase III clinical trials on the anti-obesity compound dexfenfluramine. Charles Casamento, chief executive officer of the Lexington, Mass., company, summarized the trail results at Cowen & Co.'s meeting in San Francisco. Of the 17 double-blinded, controlled trials on the drug, there were "statistically significant differences between the treatment groups and the placebos in all
Organogenesis Inc. said Friday that this month it will begin expanded preclinical feasibility studies of ligament replacement using its dense fibrillar collagen (DFC) technology. The studies will be conducted at the Memorial Medical Center in Long Beach, Calif. Results from an initial feasibility study completed recently at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine demonstrated that implanted collagen constructs provided for guided tissue regeneration, resulting in the formation of new
The general sell-off in the Dow Jones industrial average Friday registered as a minor inconvenience among biotechnology issues, as the two indexes of widely held industry companies fell but not as far. The Dow average slumped 53.76 points by the close of the session to close at 3,200.61, its lowest level in almost six months. Meantime, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Index of 20 biotechnology firms fell 2.24 points to close at 126.78, and the AMEX Biotechnology Index of 15 companies was off
VIMRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Stamford, Conn., has been issued a U.S. patent for the use of hypericin as an inactivator of viruses and retroviruses in blood units for transfusion, the company said Wednesday. The patent also covers medical devices and containers in which blood is stored or transported. VIMRx plans to apply the technology covered by this patent to the development of a system for preventing the spread of undetected viruses in blood through transfusion. (c) 1997 American Health
Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Tarrytown, N.Y., has been awarded $50,000 under Phase I of a Small Business Innovation Research Program Grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The grant will allow Progenics to expand its AIDS vaccine program by developing a system to produce large quantities of gp120, a protein present on the outer surface or "envelope" of the human immunodeficiency virus. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
Macronex Inc. announced Friday that it raised $4.5 million in a second round of private financing. The company will use the money to further develop its drug discovery efforts using the macrophage as a therapeutic target for the treatment of acute and chronic inflammatory conditions, such as sepsis, arthritis and asthma. The financing was led by Technology Leaders L.P., a venture capital fund based in Wayne, Pa. Macronex of Morrisville, N.C., raised $2 million in venture financing last year
BiotTechnica International Inc. of Overland Park, Kan., has acquired Agripro Biosciences Inc.'s corn and soybean production facility in Tekamah, Neb. Terms were not disclosed. BioTechnica has projected increased corn and soybean production and distribution needs in the western corn belt. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
Michelle Slade Associate Editor Poor market conditions may have contributed to the weak stock performance of some of the biotech companies completing initial public offerings this year, but some of the companies themselves may be at least partially to blame. Analyst Gregory Brown of Vector Securities in Deerfield, Ill., said that many of the companies filing IPOs this year "prematurely jumped through the open window." "For example, Telios (Pharmaceuticals Inc.) has interesting science, but
Cephalon Inc. said Wednesday that when Myotrophin, the company's lead compound for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and peripheral neuropathy, was administered daily by subcutaneous injection, it produced no significant side effects and was well-tolerated in healthy volunteers. In a Phase I safety trial, conducted in the United Kingdom with 48 healthy volunteers, Myotrophin was administered in four escalating doses with each dose given for seven consecutive days. (c) 1997 American Health
Raggio-Italgene SPA is disputing Temple University's decision this week to terminate its license to the Italian company for Temple's c-myb and c-abl oligonucleotide inventions. Temple said Raggio breached the licensing agreement, originally signed in January 1991, and did not satisfy the obligations of the contract. Specifically, Temple said Raggio -- Failed to perform specific obligations under the license, including not supplying the university with working antisense oligonucleotides
TSI Corp. (NASDAQ:TSIN) announced that Cell GeneSys Inc. of Foster City, Calif., granted it a non-exclusive license for a gene targeting technology to develop transgenic animal models for human diseases. TSI of Worcester, Mass., is developing a "number of transgenic animal disease models that rely on inserting foreign DNA into animals," said Munro Pitt, TSI's senior vice president. The technology, developed by Oliver Smithies and licensed exclusively to privately held Cell GeneSys by the
The FDA has given Seragen Inc. (NASDAQ:SRGN) the go-ahead to begin clinical trials on its drug for treating severe rheumatoid arthritis and a variety of lymphomas -- cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma -- that express interleukin-2 receptors. The compound, DAB389IL-2, is the company's latest version of its interleukin-2 receptor-targeted fusion toxin. It is a single protein with three domains, which the Hopkinton, Mass., company grows in E. coli, said Helen
ncogene Science Inc. announced Thursday that it had received a three-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to aid it in discovering and developing new drugs for treating leukemia. The company will receive $1.1 million the first year and expects overall about $3 million. The Uniondale, N.Y. firm plans to screen natural compounds as well as synthetic chemicals for their ability to inhibit the growth of leukemic cells. In particular, it is targeting chronic myelogenous leukemia and acute
BioSurface Technology Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., was issued U.S. patent No. 5,145,770 for cryopreservation, a method of freezing and thawing Allografts, or cultured human skin products, the company said Tuesday. The technique allows for the long-term storage of Allografts for ready use by clinicians as biologically active, wound-healing products. BioSurface was also given worldwide rights to basic technology for cryopressed tissue products. The patent covers the use of two types of freezing
According to Ernst & Young's annual report on the biotechnology industry released last week, the top issues concerning chief executives of biotechnology companies are: -- A complex regulatory environment. -- Insufficient or inaccessible capital. -- An unpredictable patent environment. -- Difficulty in distribution or sales channels. -- The cost of capital. Their importance can vary depending on whether a company has a product in clinical trials or in the development stage. For a very
Transgenic animal developer GenPharm International, Inc. said Wednesday it will collaborate with Eli Lilly & Co. to develop human monoclonal antibodies for targeted cancer therapy. Lilly's equity investment in GenPharm will add up to "less than 5 percent ownership" says Howard Rosen, GenPharm's director of corporate communications. GenPharm of Mountain View, Calif., will receive research and benchmark payments from Lilly, as well as royalties on the resulting products. For its part
Bio-Technology General Corp. has begun a Phase II efficacy study of BioTropin, its recombinant human growth hormone in pancreatic cancer patients. Recent short-term studies have shown that cancer patients treated with Bio-Technology General's human growth hormone responded to the anabolic growth hormone. The company is also conducting clinical studies aimed at assessing the utility of human growth hormone in the treatment of HIV-infected patients and in the prevention of muscle atrophy in the