While Ruth Kirschstein's appointment on Thursday as acting director and deputy director of the National Institutes of Health was no surprise, it was great news, said a highly placed source within the agency. Kirschstein, who earlier had been head of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, "is respected by everyone, and she is totally devoted to NIH and has no personal agenda, except that NIH should be high quality and pay attention to basic sciences," said the source. Bernadine
WASHINGTON -- Stock options have suddenly become a political football. On Wednesday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), an independent agency whose pronouncements are recognized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an exposure draft -- tantamount to a proposed regulation -- that would require companies to account for stock options as salary. On Tuesday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., introduced a bill that would counter FASB's proposal. Ken Gluck, a legislative
Jeremy Rifkin's Foundation on Economic Trends and the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine have filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court to halt clinical trials of human growth hormone in children. The groups charge that the National Institutes of Health- sponsored trials "are a gross violation of federal regulations protecting children, and violate all traditional ethical norms controlling the use of children in research." Last Oct. 2, the NIH's Human Growth Hormone Protocol Review
Europe's Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP) has recommended for approval Granocyte, the recombinant granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) developed by Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. The product will be marketed in Europe by Chugai-Rhone-Poulenc, the Japanese company's joint venture with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (NYSE:RPR) of Collegeville, Pa. The CPMP actually made its recommendation June 15; three days later Sweden was the first European Community country to formally approve
Bristol-Myers Squibb has taken a 9 percent equity investment in Ixsys Inc. and agreed to fund a $10 million, three-year research and development program between the two companies. This agreement, announced Wednesday, reinforces the ongoing relationship between the companies, which have been collaborating on methods to develop monoclonal antibodies directed at solid tumors since 1991. The two companies formalized their research agreement (although they didn't disclose terms) in October 1992
Onyx Pharmaceuticals, a Chiron Corp. spinoff developing cell- control drugs, announced Wednesday that it has raised $12.2 million in a private financing. Organized in 1992 around scientific insights into related genes that broadly affect cell growth and differentiation, the Richmond, Calif., company has now raised more than $21 million. Onyx anticipated bringing in "probably more a single-digit" amount in this oversubscribed round, said Hollings Renton, Onyx's president and chief executive
Eli Lilly and Co. announced Wednesday that it has suspended Phase II clinical trials of fialuridine (FIAU), the nucleoside analog it licensed from Oclassen Pharmaceuticals Inc. in August 1992. The trials will remain suspended until Lilly determines the cause of the serious adverse events that occurred during the study on FIAU's ability to treat chronic hepatitis B infection. Several of the 20 hepatitis B-infected individuals enrolled in the three-site trial "experienced adverse effects ranging
Applied Immune Sciences Inc. (AIS) announced Tuesday that the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) of the National Institutes of Health has approved a protocol utilizing cell selection technology and gene therapy designed to enhance chemotherapy tolerance for breast cancer patients. The protocol, which uses a multiple drug resistance (MDR) gene-carrying virus to protect the immune system's stem cells, will be used in a clinical study to be conducted by Karen Antman and Charles Hesdorfer at
British Bio-technology Group plc (BBG) announced Tuesday that it has rearranged its relationship with Techne Corp. in a two- prong strategy. BBG of Oxford, England, will realize $7.3 million from the deals, as well as retain a five-year option to purchase 50,000 Techne shares (NASDAQ:TECH) at current prices (averaged over the past few days), said James Noble, BBG's director of finance. First, Techne has agreed in principle to buy BBG's wholly owned subsidiary, British Bio-technology Products
Bio-Technology General Corp. (BTG) announced that its growth hormone has been launched in Japan by its licensee, JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. JCR also signed a marketing agreement with Nikken Chemicals Co. Ltd. Both companies have launched Growject Injectable 4 IU in Japan. BTG of New York shipped an initial order of $1.25 million bulk human growth hormone last month. The Japanese growth hormone market is approaching $300 million in annual sales, said Sim Fass, president and chief executive
Cellex Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXX) has entered into a distribution agreement with Tosoh Corp., a diversified international chemical products company headquartered in Tokyo. Tosoh will market Cellex's newly acquired Verex cell culture products in Japan. Acquired by Cellex in May, the Verax technology uses a fluidized bed effective for producing monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. The distribution agreement lasts until Dec. 31 and may be extended on mutually agreeable minimum
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a notice of allowance to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), for a patent for transdermal glucose monitoring. Cygnus Therapeutic Systems (NASDAQ:CYGN) of Redwood City, Calif., has an option to acquire the patent. The allowed patent derives from collaborative research with UCSF and involves using iontophoresis, an electrically assisted transport technology, to extract glucose through intact skin. Richard Guy, a professor of
HemaCare Corp. announced that its registration statement covering resale of 155,000 shares of common stock relating to a recent private placement was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This represents the domestic part of a $2 million Regulation D and Regulation S offering, completed May 7, in which the remainder of 400,000 shares were sold offshore. The Los Angeles company (NASDAQ:HEMA) provides hemapheresis-derived blood products and services and has been testing a
ID Biomedical Corp. (VSE:IDB) and Tm Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tm Technologies Corp. (VSE:TMC), have entered a collaborative research agreement in which IDB will provide $600,000 and technical support to TMC. In the 12-month agreement, the companies will seek to optimize IDB's Cycling Probe Reaction (CPR) amplification technology and DNA-based tuberculosis test, and TMC's DNA sequence reactivity optimization technology. TMC will own the rights to its improved technology
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and the University of California, San Francisco, are testing rats to find structural changes in bone leading to osteoporosis. Their research is the first in which sequential bone loss has been documented in live animals, said John Kinney, principal investigator of the project at the Livermore Lab, which is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy in Livermore, Calif. The research
Here's how PEC deploys "directed" or "forced" evolution, to make systematic changes in the amino acid sequence of an existing protein, potentially producing millions of variants: First, it achieves genetic variation through controlled, random, mixed-base mutagenesis of DNA, yielding a mixture of nucleic acid molecules encoding different but related potential binding proteins. Second, to select mutated genes encoding novel proteins with desirable binding properties, it inserts the genes into a
Protein Polymer Technologies Inc. has granted a license for use of its genetically engineered cell attachment factor, ProNectin F, to Cellco Inc. Cellco, with headquarters in Germantown, Md., manufactures cell culture systems for growing mammalian cells for research and pharmaceutical applications. The license grants exclusive use of ProNectin F for expanding modified cells in Cellco's products for ex vivo cellular therapy applications. Protein Polymer Technologies (NASDAQ:PPTI) of San Diego
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- As of this morning, the watchword at Protein Engineering Corp. (PEC) is "Have patent, will license." On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office notified PEC that U.S. Patent No. 5,223,409, "Directed Evolution of Novel Binding Proteins," had officially issued. It is dated June 29, 1993, nearly five years after the Cambridge-based company filed its application in September 1988. The patent's 66 claims cover "I a method of obtaining a nucleic acid encoding a binding
ImmunoGen Inc. started Phase I clinical trials on Oncolysin CD6, its immunotoxin for treating T-cell related diseases. The study is initially being conducted in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma to determine the compound's safety profile as well as provide some indication of the drug's ability to kill CD6+ T cells, which have been shown to play a significant role in immune response. "For example, it has been shown that elimination of CD6+ T cells from donated bone marrow prevents graft
While Ruth Kirschstein's appointment on Thursday as acting director and deputy director of the National Institutes of Health was no surprise, it was great news, said a highly placed source within the agency. Kirschstein, who earlier had been head of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, "is respected by everyone, and she is totally devoted to NIH and has no personal agenda, except that NIH should be high quality and pay attention to basic sciences," said the source. Bernadine