The strongest message from a two-day State of the Art conference on anti-retroviral therapy for adult HIV-infected patients was that when it comes to treating this dread disease, we're still in the Stone Age. This presents a daunting challege to Kristine Gebbie, President Clinton's new AIDS policy coordinator, whose job it will be to focus the government's response to the epidemic. As of the end of March, 289,000 Americans have been diagnosed with AIDS, and 182,275 have died from the disease
The FDA has requested additional information from Hygeia Pharmaceuticals Inc. under its investigational new drug application (IND) for Phase I testing of Monopharm-C to treat colorectal cancer. Hygeia of San Diego said a response should be complete by the end of July, clearing the way for a final agreement within 30 days and commencement of trials immediately thereafter. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced Friday that it has received exclusive worldwide rights to develop and market oligonucleotide therapeutics targeted at a multidrug resistance protein (MRP) discovered by researchers at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Isis of Carlsbad, Calif., and the university investigators have initiated a multiyear collaborative research program to discover therapeutic compounds to circumvent the resistance of cancers to chemotherapy drugs. For instance
Although the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) won't release its report on Risk Assessment Methods for Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children until Tuesday, interested parties are already going on record in favor of a broad pesticide phase- out agenda. Supporters of the plan range from President Clinton to the World Wildlife Fund, from the EPA to the Farmworkers Justice Fund, from the FDA to the Consumers Union, and from the USDA to biopesticide innovator Mycogen Corp. On Friday, the
Published June 9 & 16 (EPO); June 10 (WO) Akzo, NV Cancer monoclonals Arnhem, Netherlands B-cell lines from cancer patients' blood immunized with autologous tumor antigen; their monoclonal antibodies. For diagnosis, therapy. Alabama, Univ. Res. Fn. Glial scar WO 93/10798 Birmingham, Ala. disruption Monoclonal antibody to glial cell adhesion molecule disrupts glial scars in damaged nerves. American Cyanamid Co. Microbe over-produc- EPO 546 349 Stamford, Conn. ing PRP Haemophilus influenzae
With all the pessimism over current treatments that was evident at the State of the Art conference and in Berlin earlier this month, several researchers queried by BioWorld professed optimism about the promise of biotechnology. "There are lots of short-term possibilities and long-term options," Martin Hirsch, a professor in the department of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, told BioWorld. "Things like protease inhibitors may turn out to be very useful." "Biotechnology is where I am most
Biosys announced this week that it has launched flea bioinsecticides for consumer and commercial use. The Palo Alto, Calif., company (NASDAQ:BIOS) is using beneficial nematodes, microscopic worm-like organisms that live in the soil and control many insects, in the flea products, which are intended for outdoor use as an adjunct to removing fleas from inside a home and on the animal. "The nematode technology has been successfully field-tested on fleas by key university researchers," said Ramon
Boston Life Sciences Inc. (BLSI), a start-up biotechnology company developing therapeutic molecules for chronic diseases such as atherosclerosis and Parkinson's, announced Thursday that it has raised $3 million in a first-round private placement financing. The equity financing was handled by the Castle Group Ltd. of New York. The Waltham, Mass., company was founded in October 1992 by Marc Lanser, now president and chief executive officer, primarily to develop and commercialize discoveries
NeoRx Corp. on Thursday announced a private placement of $9 million. Investors agreed to buy newly issued common stock (NASDAQ:NERX) at $2 per share. The stock closed at $2.44 a share on Thursday, up 19 cents. The transaction was arranged by Daiwa Securities America Inc. and D. Blech & Co. In connection with the private placement, NeoRx also canceled 5 million shares each of its $1.75 and $2.50 per share warrants held by David Blech in return for 3 million shares of its common stock. "We have
WASHINGTON -- Targeted capital gains became a casualty, at least temporarily, in a partisan tussle as the Senate struggled Wednesday night to finish cobbling the president's deficit- reduction package. But look for it to re-emerge later this summer as the legislators reconcile differences between the final House and Senate versions of the package in conference, Chuck Ludlam, the Biotechnology Industry Organization's (BIO) vice president for government relations, told BioWorld. The R&D tax
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that it has signed a letter of intent to purchase for $7 million a manufacturing plant and research laboratory that had been operated by Sterling Winthrop Inc. The buildings, part of a 158-acre research and industrial park in Rensselear, N.Y., occupied by Sterling Winthrop, are on a 20.6 acre parcel that has space for additional construction if laboratory, manufacturing, distribution or office space are needed. The 74,000-square-foot manufacturing plant
Vector Securities International Inc., formed nearly six years ago as an institutional research and banking house, is now providing its own over-the-counter trading in biotechnology and health-care stocks. Most specialty investment firms begin by attempting to do everything, rather than add new services in a step-by-step fashion, Jeffery Holmes, vice president of institutional sales for Vector, told BioWorld. "We wanted to walk before we ran." The 35 stocks in which the group is initially
Genetic Therapy Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md., named Michael Casey as its new chief operating officer and president. Casey was formerly president of McNeil Pharmaceutical, a division of Johnson & Johnson. M. James Barrett, president and chief executive officer of Genetic Therapy since 1987, continues as the company's CEO and assumes the title of chairman of the board. Jason Rubin has been appointed vice president of corporate communications at Cephalon Inc. of West Chester, Pa. Rubin had been vice
Ophidian Pharmaceuticals Inc. has raised more than $2.6 million in a private placement of approximately 580,000 shares. The Regulation D offering of about 9.7 percent of the private company's outstanding common stock started April 7 and was expanded due to additional investor interest. The offering was intended to raise a maximum of $2.25 million in equity investment. Ophidian's first private placement of stock and warrants in December 1991 raised $3 million, Douglas Stafford, company
Cortech Inc. announced Wednesday that it has been awarded two U.S. patents, numbers 5,214,191 and 5,216,022, covering two classes of the company's human neutrophil elastase inhibitors. A third related patent application has been allowed and could issue shortly to the Denver-based company. One of the issued patents covers Cortech's lead elastase inhibitor, CE- 1037, which is licensed exclusively to Marion Merrell Dow Inc. (MMD). In early June, MMD broadened its stake in this collaborative
Genentech Inc. announced Wednesday that it has filed another lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Co., alleging infringement of a recombinant DNA process patent that issued just the day before. The U.S. patent, No. 5,221,619, stems from a cooperative research and development program on human insulin that Genentech sponsored at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., in 1986, and covers manufacture of mammalian polypeptides in microbial culture. A recombinant human growth hormone
Two papers appearing back-to-back in today's issue of Nature demonstrate that HIV is capable of killing immature T cells while they are still resident in the thymus, their organ of origin. If these results eventually translate from experimental murine systems to humans, they would indicate that the virus is capable not only of destroying mature, circulating disease-fighting white blood cells, but is able to attack them at their site of origin, thus ensuring the immune system's inability to
The FDA granted a product license to the hepatitis C virus (HCV)- specific diagnostic assay developed and manufactured by Chiron Corp. and distributed by Ortho Diagnostics Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. The test, called Chiron RIBA HCV 2.0 Strip Immunoblot Assay (SIA), is intended as an additional, more specific test for specimens found to be reactive in HCV antibody screening procedures. Because the supplemental assay provides more information than the current tests, it will
Osteotech Inc. announced Wednesday that it has obtained the exclusive U.S. marketing rights for all present and future devices and instruments for spine surgery developed by the German manufacturer Ulrich KG. In particular, Osteotech of Shrewsbury, N.J., will market Ulrich's universal spine instrumentation system (USIS), which includes the Zielke spinal implant system used by orthopedic and neurological surgeons to correct spinal curvatures caused by disease, trauma and degeneration. The two
ImmunoGen Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., has named Robert Connaughton Jr. general counsel and John Knox director of human resources. Connaughton had been president and chief operating officer of BancIreland/First Financial Inc. Knox came to ImmunoGen from Procept Inc., where he was also director of human resources. Anthony Chan has been appointed chief financial officer at Cygnus Therapeutic Systems Inc. He had been corporate controller of the Redwood City, Calif., company. VitaMed Inc., a Seattle
The strongest message from a two-day State of the Art conference on anti-retroviral therapy for adult HIV-infected patients was that when it comes to treating this dread disease, we're still in the Stone Age. This presents a daunting challege to Kristine Gebbie, President Clinton's new AIDS policy coordinator, whose job it will be to focus the government's response to the epidemic. As of the end of March, 289,000 Americans have been diagnosed with AIDS, and 182,275 have died from the disease