Centocor Inc. told its 190-person U.S. sales force two weeks ago that most of their jobs will be eliminated by the end of the first quarter. According to spokesman Richard Koenig, the company will have a total of 850 employees after the last member of the sales force leaves -- down from 1,600 in April of last year. Koenig told BioWorld that the approximate annual cost of maintaining the sales force -- including salaries, benefits, travel and support staff -- was $20 million, an average of about
Since 1977 Jeremy Rifkin has been the pebble in the shoe of the biotech industry, or worse, perhaps, the leak in the right front tire that the guy at the service station can't seem to fix. Time and again, Rifkin's had the guys in genes tied up in court. Rifkin claims not to be a Luddite, and even backs the use of genetic engineering under certain circumstances. But "there is more than one approach to science," he told BioWorld, and generally, he favors the softer approach. Technological
Biotechnology stocks continued to decline on Wednesday, with the AMEX Biotechnology Stock Index off 3.45 points to 133.24 and the Chicago Board Option Exchange Biotech Index down 4.05 points to 123.58. Chiron Corp.'s stock (NASDAQ:CHIR) fell $3.25 a share to $52.25, Synergen Inc. (SYGN) was down $3 a share to $45.25, and Amgen Inc. (AMGN) dipped $1 below its previous 52-week low, closing at $48.25 a share, down $1.63 for the day. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
Collagen Corp. (NASDAQ:CGEN) announced Wednesday that it plans to begin a stock repurchase program in which up to 500,000 shares of its common stock may be purchased in the open market from time to time. "The company's decision was made in view of the prices at which the company's common stock has recently traded and underscores the confidence of the board of directors in the future of the company," said Howard Palefsky, president and chief executive officer. The Palo Alto, Calif., company felt
Quidel Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEL) has filed for FDA marketing approval for its rapid immunoassay test for fecal occult blood. The San Diego company developed the two-minute test for doctors and laboratories to detect hidden blood in stool samples, a screening step for several gastrointestinal disorders, including colorectal cancer. The most widely used tests rely on guaiac-based chemistry that requires strict dietary limitations two days prior to the test for accuracy. The Quidel QuickVue test is
Chiron Corp. said Wednesday that it is planning to spend up to $100 million this year to gear up production capacity. The diversified biotechnology company (NASDAQ:CHIR) broke ground Wednesday for a $30 million, 30,000 square-foot growth factor facility 50 miles north of its headquarters in Emeryville, Calif. The Vacaville, Calif., facility is expected to open in May 1994 in a business park that already houses facilities for Alza Corp. and Advanced Polymer Systems Inc. Chiron will move
Protein Polymer Technologies Inc. announced Wednesday that it received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) on its genetically engineered protein polymer technology. The broad-based patent covers the San Diego company's (NASDAQ:PPTI) core technology, which is a method for generating structural proteins to be used in biomaterials. This is done by arranging selected amino acid building blocks in precise order to create new proteins with desired characteristics
Pharmos Corp. announced that Israel has approved Phase I safety studies in human volunteers of an improved submicron emulsion (SME) formulation of adaprolol maleate, a beta- blocker used for treating glaucoma. In Phase II clinical studies, it has been shown to lower intraocular pressure without producing any cardiovascular or respiratory side effects. The New York company's (NASDAQ:PARS) site-specific drug delivery technology, SME, is aimed at increasing the safety of treatment by reducing the
Alkermes Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., announced Tuesday that it has completed its acquisition by merger of Enzytech, also of Cambridge, effective Feb. 12. The acquisition was announced last November. Alkermes gains an array of drug delivery technologies developed by Enzytech that will complement Alkermes' own systems for delivering drugs to the brain as well as its programs under development for treating central nervous system disorders. In conjunction with the transaction, Alkermes issued
A new targeted capital gains bill that should benefit emerging biotech companies was introduced Tuesday into the U.S. Senate by Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., and into the House of Representatives by Robert Matsui, D-Calif. Its intent is to amend U.S. tax law to provide a capital gains tax differential for individual and corporate taxpayers who make high-risk, long-term growth-oriented venture and seed capital investments in start-up and other small companies. The small business capital gains provision
Genta Inc. filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last Friday for a follow-on public offering of 2.5 million shares of common stock. The offering will be its second round of public financing. The San Diego company (NASDAQ:GNTA) went public in December of 1991 at $10 a share, grossing $28.75 million. Lead underwriters for the secondary offering are Alex. Brown & Sons and Montgomery Securities. The underwriters have the right to exercise a standard 15 percent overallotment option
MicroProbe Corp. announced late Tuesday that it has raised $8 million from a group of investors in a private placement of equity managed by D. Blech & Co. Participants included the Global Health Sciences Fund and Financial Strategic Portfolios Inc., as well as previous investors. The Bothell, Wash., company said the funds will be used for research and development, and for marketing its Affirm line of DNA probe-based diagnostic systems. Funding will also provide increased support for MicroProbe
To shadow an unsuspecting drug dealer, wire his car with an electronic beeper. But if the quarry is cholesterol, capture it with radioactive lipoprotein peptides at the scene of atherosclerotic plaque. So says Diatech Inc. of Londonderry, N.H., which will announce today Phase I clinical trials of its plaque-tracking, isotope- imaging synthetic oligopeptide, P215. This seeing-eye-dog molecule is a modified 17-amino-acid segment that guides low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and their cargo of
The common dogfish shark has become the latest source for novel compounds that may act as powerful antibiotics in humans. Researchers from Magainin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia reported in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 90, Feb. 1993) the isolation and characterization of a unique steroid-like substance, squalamine, from the stomach and other organs of the shark Squalus acanthias. University of Pennsylvania School
Biotechnology stocks followed the slide of the market in general, with the AMEX Biotechnology Stock Index dropping 7.32 points to 136.69 and the Chicago Board Option Exchange Biotech Index losing 6.73 points, closing at 127.63. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials fell 82.94 points to 3,309.49, the largest drop since Nov. 15, 1991. Leading the decline among biotechnology issues were Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BGEN), off $4.50 a share to $30.75, and Amgen Inc. (AMGN), which tumbled $4 a share to $49
Ophidian Pharmaceuticals Inc. was named after the serpent that twines the staff of Aesculapius. According to mythology, an ailing citizen of ancient Greece could fall asleep at the shrine to this god, who would send the serpent to lick the lesions, and the patient would awake cured. It is perhaps fitting that the Madison, Wisc., company's first announcement on Tuesday of a major development agreement involves serpents. Ophidian will help the only producer of snake anti-venom in the U.S. develop
A promising potential anti-cancer agent makes tumors in research animals disappear completely, studies by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) showed. This week's edition of the journal Cancer Research features an article on this agent, based on a monoclonal antibody developed by Immunomedics Inc. of Morris Plains, N.J. Linked to a toxin derived from Pseudomonas bacteria, the antibody reduces tumors by 80 percent in laboratory animals with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A fragment of the
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday that it has decided to withdraw its secondary offering because its stock price has fallen. The San Diego company's (NASDAQ:AMLN) common stock has dropped 39 percent, from $14.25 per share on Jan. 18, the day before it filed for the offering, to $10.25 last Thursday. The stock closed at $11.38 a share on Friday, up $1.13. "We reached this conclusion because we believe the present market price does not adequately reflect our excellent progress toward
Boron Biologicals Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., announced Friday that it has received a $500,000 research contract from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to expand its research and development of novel boron compounds. The Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant will fund research focused on modifying phosphates with boron-containing nucleic acids. "Our goal is to demonstrate that boron-containing biomolecules can be highly effective anti- tumor and anti-viral agents," said
Calgene Fresh, a wholly owned subsidiary of Calgene Inc., and Agritope, a division of Epitope Inc. of Beaverton, Ore., announced last week that they will exchange their respective proprietary technologies for ethylene regulation in crops. Researchers have shown that it's possible to affect the ripening of fresh-market produce such as tomatoes by manipulating the plant's own biochemical pathway for ethylene biosynthesis. (In fact, wholesalers spray ethylene gas on rock-hard green tomatoes to
Centocor Inc. told its 190-person U.S. sales force two weeks ago that most of their jobs will be eliminated by the end of the first quarter. According to spokesman Richard Koenig, the company will have a total of 850 employees after the last member of the sales force leaves -- down from 1,600 in April of last year. Koenig told BioWorld that the approximate annual cost of maintaining the sales force -- including salaries, benefits, travel and support staff -- was $20 million, an average of about