TheraTech Inc. (NASDAQ:THRT) announced Tuesday that it has filed an application with the FDA for approval of its transdermal nitroglycerin patch for treating angina. The Salt Lake City firm said that it is preparing to file a European counterpart. The product incorporates TheraTech's enhancer technology that allows bioequivalent dose administration from smaller patches than the products already on the market. TheraTech will produce the product in its new manufacturing facility, which should be
Forget $1 million mass spectrometers and $50,000 high- pressure liquid chromatography systems. Officers of a newly public carbohydrate-based biotechnology company think they can bring carbohydrate capability to the average researcher, clearing the last hurdle in examining basic biological components. "Nucleic acids, protein and carbohydrates are the three basic building blocks," said John Klock, M.D., president of Glyko. "When people are able to look at something they couldn't look at before
First, catch your mouse. Next, shave bare a small patch of skin. Then, from a micropipette, lay a drop of carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene solution on a square cm of nude skin. Repeat once a week for up to a year. Then analyze the resulting malignancies by PCR and monoclonal antibody technologies for patterns of mutation in the gene sequence of tumor- suppressing p53. Histopathologist A. J. P. Klein-Szantos and his research team at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia did all of the above. They
Cephalon Inc. said Monday that it has licensed from Laboratoire L. Lafon of Paris exclusive rights to develop, market and sell modafinil in the U.S. and Mexico. Cephalon (NASDAQ:CEPH) of West Chester, Pa., sought licensing rights to the French pharmaceutical company's narcolepsy treatment to expand potential products it could market to neurologists, company representatives said Monday. Cephalon is also developing Myotrophin (recombinant human insulin-like growth factor or IGF-1), which is in
Univax Biologics Inc. announced Monday that it has decided to postpone its secondary offering of 2.5 million shares of common stock. The Rockville, Md., company (NASDAQ:UNVX) filed for the offering -- including an overallotment of 375,000 shares -- on Jan. 4. The managing underwriters are Prudential Securities Inc. and Montgomery Securities. "A significant amount of uncertainty in the market for biotechnology stocks has forced down the price of Univax's stock to an unacceptable level," said
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. elected Louis W. Sullivan to its board of directors. Sullivan was U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services from 1989 until 1993, and is president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. The company has also elected John D. Macomber to the board. Macomber is immediate past- president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Prior to heading the Export-Import Bank, he was chairman of J. D. Macomber & Co., a private investment and advisory firm. Bio-Imaging
Avalon Medical Partners announced Monday the close of the first part of a $6 million round of series A and B convertible preferred financing for Microcide Pharmaceuticals. The start-up company plans to capitalize on scientific advances in microbial genetics and molecular biology to develop new classes of anti-microbial agents to treat clinically important pathogens that are resistant to multiple and broad-spectrum antibiotics. The partners in the financing included Avalon, Kleiner Perkins
When Thomas Cech of the University of Colorado announced a little over a decade ago that he had discovered a self-splicing intron, a little piece of non-coding RNA that splices itself out of the transcript prior to translation, it seemed about as esoteric as research can get. (When proteins are made, DNA is "transcribed" to "messenger RNA," which is "translated" to protein.) Earlier, Sidney Altman of Yale University had discovered that the catalytic activity of a splicing enzyme, RNase P
Cytogen Corp. has provided Endotronics Inc.'s first commercial biotechnology contract for several trial batches of monoclonal antibodies for use in clinical programs, Endotronics said. Endotronics (NASDAQ:ENDO), a cell culture production-scale instrument company based in Minneapolis, also announced it has filed a type I drug master file with FDA that described the procedures, equipment and facilities it has to offer contract manufacture of clinical grade biopharmaceuticals. This filing is one
Viratek Inc. completed its public offering of 1.375 units at $7.75 per unit. The units consist of one share of Viratek common stock and one common stock purchase warrant, and are traded on the American Stock Exchange (ASE:VRAE). There were 14.6 million shares of common stock outstanding prior to the offer. Net proceeds from the offering, estimated at about $9 million, will be used to complete Phase III clinical trials and related project costs to evaluate the company's anti-viral compound
Alpha 1 Biomedicals Inc. is placing a call on its class B warrants, the Bethesda, Md., company announced Friday. The warrants, issued in July 1991, became callable once the common stock traded at an average share price greater than $15 during 20 consecutive days, R. J. Lanham, vice president of finance, told BioWorld. Holders may exercise the warrants until March 2, and may purchase one share of common stock and one class C warrant upon payment of a $12 exercise price. The company will redeem
An infection-fighting agent that is not an antibiotic has passed its Phase II clinical trials with high marks, according to results reported in San Diego over the weekend. Speaking Saturday at the Second International Congress on Biological Response Modifiers, Gary R. Ostroff, vice-president of research at Alpha-Beta Technology Inc., told some 400 clinicians that Betafectin, the company's anti-infective carbohydrate, had shielded 47 percent of post-surgery patients from infection, while 100
The French antisense company Genset announced Friday it has started clinical trials with two antisense drugs for chronic myelogenous leukemia. The trials, conducted under a French request for compassionate treatment, involve compounds GT1102 and GT1106. In the first stage, Genset and its collaborators are testing the activity of these compounds for bone-marrow purging in tissue culture. In a second stage, some patients at a blast crisis stage will be selected for autologous bone marrow
The preliminary results of a multicenter Phase II clinical trial on the biological response modifier Virulizin indicated that the product "provides survival and quality-of-life benefits" to patients with advanced malignant melanoma. Jaime de la Garza of the Mexican National Cancer Institute, who coordinated the Mexican trials on Imutec Corp.'s compound, presented the results on Virulizin last Friday at the Second International Congress on Biological Response Modifiers in San Diego. Virulizin
European Patent Disclosures Published Jan. 7, 13 (EPO), Jan. 7 (WO), Jan. 6 (GB) Abbott Laboratories Ligase chain WO 93/00447 Abbott Park, Ill. reaction (LCR) "Gap-filling" LCR amplifies target nucleic acids. Probes with specific sequences claimed for a number of pathogens. Advanced Tech. (Cambridge) Plant starch EPO 521 621 Cambridge, England production Plant cell transformed with chimeric gene comprising antisense coding sequence alters starch constitution, but not total output. American
A new Colorado biotechnology company based upon the commercial potential of "superantigen" research has saved several months in start-up time by moving into existing laboratory space of the Colorado Bio/Medical Venture Center in Lakewood, company directors said Friday. The newly formed company, Supragen, was started with $1 million initial funding from the venture capital firm E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., which also funded the Colorado companies Synergen Inc. and NeXagen. Supragen is subleasing
Sepracor Inc. announced Thursday that it has introduced a new chromatographic approach, termed HyperDiffusion Chromatography, to the commercial-scale production of biopharmaceuticals. The Marlborough, Mass. company's HyperDiffusion chromatography "is designed to combine the high flow advantages of perfusive materials with the high protein binding capability of soft gels through the use of Sepracor's proprietary media HyperD. HyperD media consist of a unique rigid structure with gel-filled pores
Organogenesis Inc. announced Friday that clinical trials on its full-thickness living skin equivalent Graftskin have demonstrated positive preliminary results for three medical applications: for treating chronic wounds resulting from venous stasis, for replacing skin lost to dermatological surgery, and for treating burn wounds. In all three trials on 65 patients, Graftskin did not elicit an immune response, the product had an excellent safety profile and it enhanced wound healing or graft take
Applied Biosystems Inc. (NASDAQ:ABIO) has been granted an exclusive worldwide license that should allow it to provide the cattle industry with the first standardized, automated DNA typing analysis. The Foster City, Calif., supplier of automated DNA analysis systems is licensing polymorphic microsatellie markers from Genmark Inc., a leader in developing a bovine genetic map and identifying commercially relevent traits, such as milk production potential. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All
Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc. (ATS) has taken its first step to license its living skin replacement in Japan, with a preliminary agreement with Mitsubishi Kasei Corp. Mitsubishi Kasei has a proven track record with biopharmaceuticals in Japan, said Jim Linton, ATS's manager of program administration. The diversified global chemical company is currently distributing tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and a hepatitis B vaccine it licensed from Genentech Inc. of South San Francisco, Calif
TheraTech Inc. (NASDAQ:THRT) announced Tuesday that it has filed an application with the FDA for approval of its transdermal nitroglycerin patch for treating angina. The Salt Lake City firm said that it is preparing to file a European counterpart. The product incorporates TheraTech's enhancer technology that allows bioequivalent dose administration from smaller patches than the products already on the market. TheraTech will produce the product in its new manufacturing facility, which should be