As the Association of Biotechnology Companies (ABC) and the Industrial Biotechnology Association (IBA) prepare to merge, their leaders, Thomas G. Wiggans, chief operating officer of CytoTherapeutics Inc., and Stephen A. Duzan, chairman and chief executive officer of Immunex Corp., have sent a strong letter to President-elect Clinton, urging him to attend to the industry's most immediate concerns. Capital formation is the premier item on the ABC/IBA agenda for Clinton, including provisions for
The chiefs of Association of Biotechnology Companies (ABC) and the Industrial Biotechnology Association (IBA) announced Friday that the two trade groups have agreed, in principle, to merge. The new group will be called the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). The action is subject to ratification by the membership of both associations at their respective annual meetings -- February for IBA and April for ABC. "I do expect it to be ratified by a landslide," said a source affiliated with
Immunodiagnostic company Biocircuits Corp. has filed for a secondary public offering of 2.5 million shares of common stock to speed development of clinical tests. The Burlingame, Calif., company (NASDAQ:BIOC) raised $9.3 million in an initial public offering last May. After the secondary offering, the company will have 10,577,918 shares outstanding. The company's underwriters, Hambrecht & Quist Inc. and Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., have an option to purchase up to 375,000 shares of stock to cover
Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. announced Thursday that it intends to submit revised protocols to FDA in order to resume clinical trials of its perflubron drug products, Imagent BP and Oxygent HT. Last September, the company announced a delay in initiation of human studies with the two agents based on minor changes it observed in the lungs of certain animals species during routine preclinical tests. On the day of the announcement, Alliance stock (NASDAQ:ALLP) fell $4.75 a share, to $10. Alliance
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- At a breakfast roundtable here Thursday on biotechnology mergers and acquisitions sponsored by public accountants Coopers & Lybrand, the 190 attendees heard a leading industry executive put forward four reasons "Why Biotech Industry Will Consolidate." James P. Sherblom, chairman and chief executive officer of TSI Inc. of Worcester, Mass., and co-founder of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, told the audience that he would present "stuff you know but may not want to
Bio-Imaging Technologes Inc. said Thursday it intends to acquire a privately held multimedia medical communications company, TM Marketing, through purchase of its outstanding common stock. "This acquisition will help accelerate the commercial application of our medical image-processing technology," said James Conklin, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Bio-Imaging (NASDAQ:BITI). The company uses techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear medicine, computed tomography
Biotechnica International Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOT) of Overland Park, Kan., announced that it has acquired NobleBear Inc., a producer and marketer of hybrid corn and soybean seed. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
Emisphere Technologies Inc. on Thursday announced a collaboration with SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. to work on the development of oral dosage formulations for a number of existing and future SciClone products. Emisphere could receive milestone payments as feasibility and development steps are achieved. Emisphere also said it has filed with the Securites and Exchange Commision a public offering of 1.8 million shares of common stock (NASDAQ:EMIS), of which 1.5 million are being sold by the
CellPro Inc. announced Thursday that it received three end-of- the-year U.S. patent allowance notices for cell-selection technology it licenses from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The Bothell, Wash., company (NASDAQ:CPRO) develops proprietary, continuous-flow cell-selection systems for therapeutic, diagnostic and research applications. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, an independent, non-profit research institution, has licensed novel methods developed there to CellPro
Celltech Group plc announced Thursday that it has reached an agreement with a large corporate partner to develop potential therapies to block chemical messengers that mediate inflammatory disease and immune disorders. Celltech, a privately held British company, and Schering-Plough Corp., on behalf of several of its affiliated companies, said they have a collaboration and licensing agreement to develop and commercialize genetically engineered antibodies to selected cytokines. By blocking the
A Phase II clinical trial showed that a colorectal cancer imaging agent developed by Immunomedics Inc. was able to correctly identify colorectal cancer sites. The results were published in the January 1993 issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, the Morris Plains, N.J., company (NASDAQ:IMMU) announced Thursday. The prospective study of 62 patients with colorectal cancer showed that 91 percent of positive readings with the iodine- 123 labeled MAb-based product correctly identified colorectal
Shares of TSI Corp. (NASDAQ:TSIN) dropped $1.25 Thursday to close at $4.13, with more than 2 million shares changing hands. Cowen and Co.'s biotechnology group, led by analyst David Stone, downgraded its rating on the Worcester, Mass., company from "neutral/outperform" to "neutral/neutral." (The designations refer to short-term/long-term market performance estimates.) Cowen and Co. changed the rating due to its estimates for lower earnings for the company in the 1993-1995 period. In other
Scios Nova Inc. announced Thursday that it has purchased the assets of Nova Technology Limited Partnership (NTLP) with the issuance of 2.5 million shares of Scios Nova common stock. NTLP was formed in 1987 by Nova Pharmaceuticals Corp., which merged with Scios Inc. last September to form Scios Nova Inc. Scios Nova will report a one-time, non-cash charge to operations of approximately $20.5 million for the fourth quarter of 1992. NTLP's assets consist primarily of research and development in
Vical Inc. announced late Thursday that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering of 3 million shares of common stock at $9-11 per share. Hambrecht & Quist and Vector Securities are co-managing the offering. Vical of San Diego said it plans to use the proceedings for research and development, including preclinical and clinical studies, facilities expansion and general corporate purposes. Vical develops gene-based
Centocor Inc.'s stock (NASDAQ:CNTO) rose $1.25 a share Wednesday on busy trading of about 1.8 million shares. Analyst Wole Fayemi of Hambrecht & Quist in New York upgraded his rating on the Malvern, Pa.-based company from a "speculative buy" to a "buy." Fayemi said he expects significant advances in product development over the course of 1993 and that the company's financial position continues to improve as it lowers its burn rate and revises its business strategy. (c) 1997 American Health
PharmChem Laboratories Inc.announced that Sudormed Inc. has filed with FDA its intention to distribute a sweat collection patch for detection of cocaine use. PharmChem (NASDAQ:PCHM) of Menlo Park, Calif., a drug testing laboratory, and Sudormed, a privately held medical device company, signed an exclusive license and supply agreement last March for the drug-detection patch. The notification was submitted to FDA following extensive clinical studies that demonstrated that cocaine use can be
Boron Biologicals Inc. (BBI) received a $50,000 small business innovation research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop enzyme inhibitors that could eventually shut down virus functions. BBI research may have implications for the treatment of viral infections such as herpes and HIV, and cancer. BBI of Raleigh, N.C., was founded in 1986 to promote commercial development of a proprietary class of compounds based on boron that can have key applications in drugs
Creative BioMolecules Inc. announced that its underwriting group, led by Montgomery Securities and Prudential Securities Inc., has exercised its option in connection with the company's initial public offering to purchase an additional 450,000 shares of common stock. The company, which began trading Dec. 18, raised $21 million in its 3 million-share IPO. The Hopkinton, Mass., company (NASDAQ:CBMI) is a leader in the discovery and development of proprietary protein-based products for the
MicroProbe Corp. has received FDA permission to export a test kit for identification of microorganisms associated with periodontal disease, the most common cause of tooth loss in adults. The privately held Bothell, Wash., company plans to export its Affirm DP Microbial Identification Test System to Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Norway, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland. The system, which has no FDA market clearance in the U.S., represents the first direct
Sibia Inc. and the Pharmaceutical Sector of the Belgian drug and chemical company UCB announced that they have agreed to develop and co-promote an anti-epileptic drug discovered by UCB. Sibia, a private biopharmaceutical company formed by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1981, will take the drug through clinical trials for treating epilepsy and obtain regulatory approval in the U.S. and Canada. The La Jolla, Calif., company and UCB will co-promote the product in the U.S. and Canada
As the Association of Biotechnology Companies (ABC) and the Industrial Biotechnology Association (IBA) prepare to merge, their leaders, Thomas G. Wiggans, chief operating officer of CytoTherapeutics Inc., and Stephen A. Duzan, chairman and chief executive officer of Immunex Corp., have sent a strong letter to President-elect Clinton, urging him to attend to the industry's most immediate concerns. Capital formation is the premier item on the ABC/IBA agenda for Clinton, including provisions for