Top-tier biotech stocks continued to drive up the biotechnology stock indexes on Monday. The AMEX Biotechnology Stock Index gained 9.03 to close at168.38 and the Chicago Board Options Exchange BioTech stock index rose 8.14 to close at 158.13. Biotech stocks outpaced the broader indexes, as the Dow Jones average of 30 industrials was up 0.81 to 3,240.87 and the NASDAQ Composite Index gained 5.23 to 622.05. On Friday, the AMEX was up 8.14 and the CBOE gained 5.90. Individual biotech issues were
Cholestech Corp. announced Friday that it filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a secondary public offering of 2.5 million shares of common stock. Of the shares being offered, 1.25 million are being sold by Cholestech, and 1.25 million by shareholders. Underwriter Kemper Securities has an option to purchase up to an additional 375,000 shares to cover overallotments. The offering could raise up to $36 million, depending on the price of the shares, said
Crop Genetics International Corp. reported Friday that its genetically modified InCide biopesticide reduced the damage inflicted by corn borers to two different corn varieties by 80 percent and 60 percent in field trials this year. Joseph Kelly, chief executive officer of Crop Genetics (NASDAQ:CROP) of Hanover, Md., said that chemical insecticides generally control about 50 percent of the corn borers. InCide is a plant vaccine composed of an endophytic microbe that Crop Genetics scientists
A blue ribbon panel convened last Thursday by NIH Chief Bernadine Healy concluded that all leading AIDS vaccine candidates -- not just the one developed by MicroGeneSys Inc. -- should be tested. The U.S. Senate recently appropriated $20 million to the Army to conduct clinical trials in seropositive individuals of MicroGeneSys' AIDS vaccine, composed of the HIV envelope protein gp160. Since then, many in the research establishment have been seething over this "end run around peer review." Not
On Aug. 19, in rural Colorado, a 31-year-old man rescued his friend's sick cat from a trailer crawl space. One week later, the Good Samaritan was dead of pneumonic plague -- the first plague fatality in the U.S. since 1987, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported. Thomas Quan, of the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases in Ft. Collins, Colo., told BioWorld that the victim was not scratched or bitten by the animal, but did have "several minutes of face-to-face breathing contact with
Redox Pharmaceutical Corp. (formerly Chai-Tech Corp.) announced Friday that it is ready to test its anti-viral drug Doxovir in the clinic. Doxovir, a small organic compound with a core of the metal ion cobalt, has proved effective against herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 and human cytomegalovirus in animal studies of eye infection. The drug exhibits both anti-viral and anti- inflammatory activity, Tod Cooperman, Redox's president, told BioWorld. In fact, Cooperman explained, Doxovir and
Alanex Ltd. Laboratories for Molecular Design is using proprietary technology to develop non-peptide drugs from peptide lead compounds that may be potential treatments for cardiovascular conditions, the company reported Thursday at the Connect San Diego Biotechnology Forum in La Jolla, Calif. According to Marvin Brown, Alanex's chief executive officer, the company used its rational drug design sysem, called Alanet, to synthesize the first Neuropeptide Y (NPY) receptor antagonists that exhibit
Boston Biomedica Inc. (BBI) announced Thursday that it has received a $280,000, two-year contract from the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) to supply the CBER's hepatitis lab with a series of viral hepatitis reference panels for evaluating in vitro diagnostic test procedures. Hepatitis test kit manufacturers also will use BBI's reference panels for lot-to-lot release testing of FDA-licensed test kits, and for developing and evaluating new assays, BBI said. The West
Carrington Laboratories Inc. announced Thursday it raised $4,725,000 in a private placement involving approximately 12 investors. According to the company, the funds will be used for research and development, to retire bank financing and for general corporate funding. Earlier this year, due to unfavorable market conditions, Carrington postponed a public offering in which it hoped to raise $13 million and an additional $30 million for Carntech Inc., a company recently spun off by Carrington to
William Miller was named vice president and general counsel at Collagen Corp. of Palo Alto, Calif. Miller was vice president, general counsel and secretary at Boehringer Mannheim U.S. Holdings Inc. P. William Curreri, a past president of the American Burn Association, was elected to the board of directors of LifeCell Corp. of The Woodlands, Texas. Arris Pharmaceutical Corp. of South San Francisco, Calif., named Melinda Griffith director of legal affairs and human resources. She was senior
The University of California, San Francisco, announced Thursday that it has received $950,000 from the National Institutes of Health to help establish a pediatric brain tumor research center. The purpose is to use leading technologies -- including gene therapy -- to reach some fundamental understanding of childhood brain tumors, and to create ways to care for the afflicted children. While brain tumors in adults are relatively rare, in children they are not only common, but also the most deadly
Ecogen Inc. has entered into a three-year research and development agreement with the Paris-based Institut Pasteur to develop microorganism-based biopesticides. Also involved in the project is insecticide supplier Roussel- Uclaf, the industrial sponsor of the project, and the Institut Nationale de Recherche Agronomique, both of Paris. Under the terms of the agreement, Ecogen and Roussel will share rights to the biopesticide technology and products developed during the partnership. According to
Viagene Inc. scientists reported their ongoing, unpublished gene therapy results in animal models of cancer at this week's First International Conference on Gene Therapy of Cancer, sponsored by the University of California, San Diego. In several tumor model systems -- colon cancer, lung cancer and melanoma -- the researchers found that they can "prime the immune system to mount potent responses against the parent tumor." In essence, Viagene researchers have used retroviral vector mediated gene
Cytel Corp.'s monoclonal antibody against P-selectin, a class of cell adhesion molecule, has been shown to block inflammation in acute lung injury in rats. The October issue of Journal of Clinical Investigation reported that the antibody, CY1747, tested in rats in vitro and in vivo demonstrated that P-selectin was involved in mediating the recruitment and migration of neutrophils (white blood cells) from the bloodstream to tissue-injury sites. The studies indicated that P-selectin may provide
Applied DNA Systems Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ADNA) board of directors has put the company up for sale. The Warwick, R.I., company holds the patent on a fluorescent assay for determining the sensitivity of tumor biopsies to various chemotherapy drugs. "This provides information as to which drugs will be most valuable in treating a patient's tumor," Edmund W.E. Stein, Applied's chairman of the board, told BioWorld. The technology is not only patient-specific, but it can be used for any type of accessible
OXFORD, England -- A technique that can detect 10 malignant cells among 10 million healthy ones is about to go into clinical practice here to aid cancer diagnosis and prognosis. It's based on the little-known finding that the single gene encoding CD44 can put out as many as 32 different products, some of which react characteristically with tumor cells. CD44 is a protein-like molecule, that antibodies on the surface of white blood cells recognize as antigens. (CD stands for cluster
Greenwich Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported Wednesday that it has started Phase II clinical trials on its carbohydrate drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis. The compound, GW-80126, is one of the Fort Washington, Pa., company's second-generation synthetic monosaccharides that exhibits anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative properties. Edwin Thompson, Greenwich's (NASDAQ:GRPI) president and chief executive officer, stressed the speed with which the company hopes to determine the drug's efficacy
Cellcor Inc. announced Wednesday that Michael Osband, the company's scientific founder, executive vice president and chief technical officer, has resigned. He will remain a consultant and director. This is not a recent development, Osband told BioWorld, but rather a "normal evolution that had been planned for some time. We wanted to wait until Fred came to pick up the day-to- day load." That's Frederick Miesowicz, former manager of Terumo Corp.'s (Tokyo) cellular therapy business, who's become
Lidak Pharmaceuticals announced Wednesday that it received notices of allowances on two U.S. patents for the use of its lead drug, Lidakol, as a systemic treatment for arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. The new patents cover the use of Lidakol, an n-docosanol- based product, by injection or via transmucus or transdermal penetration. The La Jolla, Calif., company said it plans to develop Lidakol as a systemic treatment of viral and inflammatory diseases, including cytomegalovirus
Organogenesis Inc. (ASE:ORG) reported Wednesday that its most recent milestone payment from Eli Lilly and Co. on its product for replacing human arteries has been postponed. This mirrors a delay in the preclinical evaluation of the product, Graftartery, which needed some modifications "to demonstrate extended graft potency in animal trials," explained Thomas Tully, Organogenesis' president and chief operating officer. Lilly and Organogenesis have since "made the new and improved product for
Top-tier biotech stocks continued to drive up the biotechnology stock indexes on Monday. The AMEX Biotechnology Stock Index gained 9.03 to close at168.38 and the Chicago Board Options Exchange BioTech stock index rose 8.14 to close at 158.13. Biotech stocks outpaced the broader indexes, as the Dow Jones average of 30 industrials was up 0.81 to 3,240.87 and the NASDAQ Composite Index gained 5.23 to 622.05. On Friday, the AMEX was up 8.14 and the CBOE gained 5.90. Individual biotech issues were