PDL REPORTS RESULTS Protein Design Labs Inc. (PDL) reported Thursday that its human anti-cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibody was safe and well-tolerated in Phase I/II trials on AIDS patients with CMV retinitis. The Mountain View, Calif., company (NASDAQ:PDLI) presented the clinical trial results at the Ninth International AIDS Conference in Berlin. None of the 17 patients enrolled in the trial showed evidence of an immune response to the antibody, which was administered in doses ranging from 0.25
Mycogen Corp. announced that its M-Trak bioinsecticide has become the first genetically engineered biopesticide to be registered for commercial sale in Canada. The registration, issued by Agriculture Canada, was obtained through a joint effort between San Diego-based Mycogen and Dow Elanco, which will distribute the product in Canada. Mycogen's (NASDAQ:MYCO) M-Trak, which is used to control the Colorado potato beetle, employs a protein toxin that occurs naturally in Bacillus thuringiensis
Oncologix Inc. and Creative BioMolecules Inc. have signed an agreement to develop new monoclonal antibody (MAb)-based cancer treatments. The pact concerns erbB-2, a MAb developed by Oncologix of Gaithersburg, Md., and the biosynthetic antibody binding molecules, or "BABS," of Creative BioMolecules (NASDAQ:CBMI) of Hopkinton, Mass. Oncologix received worldwide exclusive rights to apply Creative BioMolecules' BABS technology to OLX-209, a genetically engineered anti-tumor immunotoxin designed to
DynaGen Inc. has begun Phase III trials of NicErase-IA to reduce nicotine withdrawal symptoms in hospitalized patients. The Phase III trial will test the injectable product in a double- blind, placebo-controlled study of 40 men and 40 women who smoke at least one pack of cigarettes a day. Symptoms will be documented several times a day over a five-day period using a standard Tobacco Withdrawal Symptoms Index questionnaire. "We believe NicErase-IA could provide hospitalized smokers with a safe
T CELLS AND AIDS PROGRESSION In another project, AIDS researcher Jay Levy, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, reported at the Ninth International AIDS Conference in Berlin that he has been studying T cells' intercellular messages involved in the progression of AIDS. Levy's team identified a CD8 subcategory that he said keeps HIV from multiplying and eliminates other cells infected with HIV. The researchers found a new messenger molecule, a protein cytokine
Nuclear imaging is taking a new turn, with isotopes targeted to disease sites using small peptides instead of larger and potentially more risky monoclonal antibodies, Diatech Inc. reported Wednesday at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 40th Annual Meeting in Toronto. The Londonderry, N.H., radiopharmaceutical company was one of three companies announcing biotechnology-based imaging results at the meeting. Diatech has funded preclinical studies at medical and academic research centers showing
Immune Response Corp. and its partner, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, presented long-awaited data from the Phase II/III clinical trial on their HIV-1 immunotherapeutic vaccine Wednesday at the Ninth International AIDS Conference in Berlin. The bottom line: The data on the putative vaccine's ability to influence the viral burden in HIV-infected patients are statistically significant, but not overwhelmingly so. They're not conclusive, either, and point the way to the need for more clinical trials of the
WASHINGTON -- The Biotechnology Patent Protection Act of 1993 received another boost as G. Kirk Raab, Genentech Inc.'s chief executive officer and newly appointed chairman of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), testified before the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration on Wednesday. The difficulty that the legislation (H.R. 760) seeks to mitigate is a loophole in patent law, due to conflicting legal precedents, which allows the products of U.S.-protected
MicroProbe Corp. announced Wednesday that it has initiated a countersuit against GenProbe regarding patent infringement issues surrounding GenProbe's U.S. patent on DNA probe technology. GenProbe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., sued MicroProbe on May 17, charging the Bothell, Wash., company with infringing its patent, No. 4,851,330, which relates to the detection, identification and quantification of non-viral organisms through the targeting of ribosomal RNA
At the same meeting, Immunomedics Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU) reported clinical results of its infectious disease imaging agent, ImmuRAID-MN3, a technetium-99m conjugate of a monoclonal antibody fragment. The compound, in Phase III studies, seeks out infection-fighting granulocytes that are visualized with a nuclear medicine camera. ImmuRAID-MN3 accurately detected inflammation in 10 patients with known infections in a study at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, La., and
Jurassic Park notwithstanding, the oldest fossil DNA ever extracted from amber and analyzed dates from the Cretaceous geologic period (120-135 million years ago), not the Jurassic (180 million). Nor did the ancient insect extracted from its resinous integument dine on dinosaur blood, but on the pollen of conifer trees. Today's Nature reports this record-breaking feat of molecular paleontology under the title "Amplification and sequencing of DNA from a 120-135-million-year-old weevil." Its lead
Cytogen Corp. of Princeton, N.J., also reported safe repeat administration of its colorectal cancer imaging agent. In a multicenter study led by Hani Nabi of the State University of New York in Buffalo, OncoScint Colorectal was repeatedly given to 95 patients, with some receiving four or more infusions. The agent detected lesions in 30 of 38 patients with known disease and produced HAMA responses in 34 percent of patients. "Statistically, the overall sensitivity and adverse effect rate (2.1
Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Syntex Corp. announced today that they have formed a collaboration worth upward of $15 million to discover novel drugs for treating arthritis and certain malignant tumors. Syntex (NYSE:SYN) will provide Agouron with $8.5 million in research funding over the next three years, with an option to pay out another $3.5 million to extend the collaboration for a fourth year. As well, Syntex of Palo Alto, Calif., has purchased 155,844 newly issued shares of Agouron stock
Arris Pharmaceutical Corp. and Amgen Inc. are joining forces to discover and develop synthetic compounds that mimic the action of cytokines, Arris announced Tuesday. This three-year collaboration pairs Arris' expertise in structure-based drug design with Amgen's (NASDAQ:AMGN) proven strength in cytokine R&D -- especially erythropoietin (EPO) -- to come up with small non-peptidic cytokine mimetics that will bind the super family of cytokine receptors. The renewable agreement provides for Amgen
Chiron Corp. came one step closer to final FDA approval of its drug for treating multiple sclerosis last week. On Thursday the agency informed Chiron (NASDAQ:CHIR) that it will approve Betaseron (a recombinant form of beta- interferon) once the company supplies FDA with certain "information." That information, explained Larry Kurtz, Chiron's vice president of corporate communications, is "what you would expect at the final stages of review with FDA. Labeling is the most obvious. "FDA's requests
SmithKline Beecham tapped another emerging technology on Tuesday in an agreement to spend up to $25 million in a collaboration with Cephalon Inc. on compounds for stroke and other neurological disorders. The West Chester, Pa., neuroscience company also will receive an option to co- promote products in some major pharmaceutical markets, and royalties on product sales in the rest of the world. Spokeswoman Lyn Hyduke said Cephalon was looking for a partner to co-develop the company's technology
BETHESDA, Md. -- No one knows why many types of cancer cells produce copious quantities of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) compared with normal cells, Joseph Ilan told BioWorld. But he is betting that suppressing IGF-1 synthesis and performing some additional manipulations could destroy brain tumors. On Tuesday, the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) of the National Institutes of Health approved the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine biologist's protocol to treat
RANDOLPH, Mass. -- With $35 million from the Bank of Boston, plus at least $5 million of its own funds, Ares-Serono Inc. is about to expand its biotechnology presence in Massachusetts. In a joint announcement on Tuesday, the pharmaceutical company and the financial institution reported signing a letter of intent to bankroll a building program here. It will step up manufacture of two recombinant pharmaceuticals, interleukin- 6 and Saizen, a human growth hormone. Serono also unveiled a $100,000
Preclinical data on an antisense compound for inhibiting HIV gene expression were presented Tuesday at the Ninth International Conference on AIDS in Berlin. Sudhir Agrawal, chief scientific officer of Hybridon Inc., reported that the compound, GEM91, was able to inhibit the expression of HIV-1- associated proteins by targeting the virus' gag gene sequence, which is believed to be highly invariant in most known strains of HIV-1. Researchers at the Worcester, Mass., company used an in vitro assay
The therapeutic gap between antibodies from mice and humans has been eliminated in genetic engineering by GenPharm International. The Mountain View, Calif., company reported in the June issue of Nature Genetics that its scientists have transferred a complete segment of the human heavy chain antibody gene into mice that had previously had their own antibody genes knocked out. The embryonic mice grow up producing human antibody subunits that can be used to generate completely human monoclonal
PDL REPORTS RESULTS Protein Design Labs Inc. (PDL) reported Thursday that its human anti-cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibody was safe and well-tolerated in Phase I/II trials on AIDS patients with CMV retinitis. The Mountain View, Calif., company (NASDAQ:PDLI) presented the clinical trial results at the Ninth International AIDS Conference in Berlin. None of the 17 patients enrolled in the trial showed evidence of an immune response to the antibody, which was administered in doses ranging from 0.25