Quadra Logic Technologies Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, announced Tuesday that it has received regulatory clearance from the Health Protection Branch in Canada to market its light-activated drug Photofrin for treating recurrent superficial papillary bladder cancer in patients who have failed other forms of therapy. Photofrin is used in photodynamic therapy, which is a two-step process. First, the drug is injected into patients intravenously and allowed to accumulate in tumors, while
Development of anti-virals for AIDS may be speeded by months, and perhaps years, through an unprecedented sharing of supplies and information during early clinical testing of compounds from 15 pharmaceutical companies. The development, long recommended by AIDS activists, took more than a year of formal negotiations to forge between representatives of American and European pharmaceutical companies. Industry leader Merck & Co. Inc. initiated the discussions, which resulted in the Inter-Company
Athena Neurosciences Inc. announced Monday it is dropping development of an epilepsy compound and acquiring marketing and distribution rights of a Parkinson's treatment for $36 million from Eli Lilly and Co. Athena plans to return to A.H. Robins Co. Inc., a subsidiary of American Home Products Corp., the worldwide license rights to AN051 (dezinamide), which Athena spent about $6 million over the past two years developing as a new epilepsy treatment. Suspending development will save some $25
Hemosol Inc. announced that it has completed its public offering of 3.2 million shares of common stock at C$11 (U.S.$8.73) per share. The shares will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HDL. The Toronto blood substitute company grossed C$35 million (U.S. $27.8 million) from the offering, which was underwritten by Gordon Capital Corp., Midland Walwyn Capital Inc., Wood Gundy Inc. and RBC Dominion Securities Inc. The underwriters have the option to purchase 318,150 additional
DynaGen Inc. announced Monday that it is accelerating clinical development of NicErase-IA to treat nicotine addiction. Based on a naturally occurring plant substance called lobeline that appears to bind nicotine receptors, NicErase-IA is designed for twice-daily injection to reduce nicotine withdrawal symptoms, particularly in hospitalized patients who are restricted from smoking. The Cambridge, Mass., company (NASDAQ:DYGN) has submitted to the FDA an investigational new drug application for
ImClone Systems Inc. announced Monday that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a public offering of 1.5 million shares of its common stock. Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Inc., Robertson, Stephens & Co. L.P. and SBCI Swiss Bank Corporation Investment Banking Inc. will co-manage the offering. This is the first follow-on stock offering for the New York- based biopharmaceutical company, which raised $35 million in its initial public
Protein Design Labs announced Monday that it has started the third clinical trial of the Smart Anti-Tac humanized antibody. The multiple-dose study will be conducted in North America and Europe in graft vs. host disease. The Mountain View, Calif., company's Smart Anti-Tac is intended to suppress the immune system by blocking binding of Interleuken 2 to activated T cells. Only 5 percent to 10 percent of all T cells are activated by the presence of foreign cells to take part in the immune
Bio-Technology General Corp. (BTG) announced Monday that its recombinant human growth hormone (hGH) has received a product license in Japan. JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., BTG's marketing partner in Japan, will launch the product, Growject, as soon as its price is included on the National Health Insurance listing. JCR already markets the non-recombinant, pituitary gland- derived version of growth hormone in Japan, explained Leah Berkovits, BTG's manager, administration. The gland-derived
Immunomedics Inc. summarized results of Phase II trials of its imaging agent for non-Hodgkin's lymphomas on Saturday at the annual meeting of the German Society for Nuclear Medicine. David Goldenberg, chairman of the Morris Plans. N.J., company (NASDAQ:IMMU), reviewed results showing ImmuRAID-LL2 successfully tracked lymphomas in more than 80 percent of patients studied at three medical centers in Chicago, Baton Rouge, La., and Newark, N.J., frequently revealing tumors missed by conventional
Amgen Greater China Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Amgen Inc., announced Friday that it officially opened its Hong Kong office to provide promotional and technical support for medical product sales in China. Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) of Thousand Oaks, Calif., has been selling Epogen, its Epoetin alfa, to stimulate production of red blood cells in patients who are suffering chronic renal failure in China since January. Amgen's Neupogen, which stimulates production of infection- fighting white
WASHINGTON -- Those who develop technology must become sensitive to how their inventions influence equity and social justice. This was Congressman George Brown's message to about 350 scientists, technologists and policy makers at a luncheon sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Friday. Brown, a California democrat who has spent three decades on Capitol Hill, takes a very strong interest in biotechnology from his position as ranking majority member of the House
Convinced it would be possible to influence the immune response to tumors, scientists at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a comprehensive survey of immune messengers in mice with a variety of malignancies and found one cytokine stimulated long-lasting protection from cancer. The study, published in last week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identified granulocyte- macrophage colony stimulating
Ecogen Inc. announced last week that it has been issued U.S. Patent No. 5,187,091 on a Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) gene that produces an insecticidal crystal protein (ICP) to control beetle pests, especially the corn root worm beetle. The patent also covers the Bt strains that contain the gene. "The insecticidal protein made by this gene in particular is the most efficacious Bt protein known for controlling the corn root worm beetle," said John McIntyre, vice president for business development
Collaborative Research Inc. announced that it has received a $100,000 contract from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to screen DNA samples for mutations. The contract is for one year, with four one-year options. The Waltham, Mass., company (NASDAQ:CRIC) also announced that it has received a $500,000, two-year Phase II small business innovation research (SBIR) grant from the National Center for Human Genome Research to complete the development of high-resolution genetic
Imutec Corp. presented interim results of its Phase II clinical trial on Virulizin in patients with advanced malignant melanoma last week at the Baylor College of Medicine Research Symposium in Houston. The one-year survival rate of the patients treated with Virulizin, an immune response modifier extracted from bovine reticuloendothelium, was 39 percent compared with an 11 percent one-year historical survival rate for patients with similar advanced stage III and IV malignant melanomas. The 33
Hybridon Inc. announced Friday that it has signed an agreement with The Wellcome Foundation Ltd. on its antisense oligonucleotides to two cancer-associated genes, ras and c- erbB2. Initially, Wellcome will test and evaluate several of Hybridon's antisense constructs, in particular for biological activity against the two oncogenes, both in vitro and in vivo. If any of those compounds looks promising, the two companies intend to discuss further collaborations to develop and commercialize that
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--Vice-president Al Gore's point man for biotechnology, his domestic policy adviser, Greg Simon, told the Seventh International Biotechnology Meeting and Exhibition, "I don't think there's ever been anybody in the White House who knows the details of biotechnology as well as Al Gore does." He added, "I don't think there's ever been a president as committed to the future of science and technology as Bill Clinton." He addressed an industry audience of 652 on Thursday
MicroGeneSys Inc. was in a "quiet" holding pattern on Thursday, one day after the National Institutes of Health announced it will take over funding of an AIDS vaccine trial from the U.S. Army. The company has not yet decided if it will donate its vaccine to the new, multivaccine trial. "This was sprung on them by the NIH," said Tom O'Toole of Powell Tate, a Washington, D.C., agency that responded to calls made Thursday to the Meriden, Conn., company. MicroGeneSys successfully lobbied Congress
Promega Corp., a privately held supply company, announced Thursday that it is challenging the validity of the patent for Taq polymerase, the widely used DNA amplification enzyme, which Hoffmann-La Roche bought in 1991 for more than $300 million from the former Cetus Corp. Roche sued the Madison, Wisc., company in October 1992, alleging Promega overstepped the boundaries of its 1990 license from Cetus, which allowed Promega to sell the enzyme for uses other than polymerase chain reaction (PCR
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Look for biotechnology to get a huge boost in the budget of the National Institutes of Health for next year, and for the coming decades. That's because NIH Director Bernadine Healy's controversial strategic plan for NIH's next 20 years emphasized so-called "critical technologies," notably biotechnology and molecular medicine, an NIH official told a symposium of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Thursday. Critical technologies account for $6 billion
Quadra Logic Technologies Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, announced Tuesday that it has received regulatory clearance from the Health Protection Branch in Canada to market its light-activated drug Photofrin for treating recurrent superficial papillary bladder cancer in patients who have failed other forms of therapy. Photofrin is used in photodynamic therapy, which is a two-step process. First, the drug is injected into patients intravenously and allowed to accumulate in tumors, while