Telios Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday that it filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the public offering of 4 million shares of its common stock by Hambrecht and Quist Inc. and Prudential Securities Inc. Telios (NASDAQ:TLIO) of San Diego said it will use the proceeds from the offering for ongoing and planned research and product development. Telios stock closed up 25 cents a share on Friday to $8.25 (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights
Grover C. Wrenn was named chief executive officer at Applied Bioscience International Inc. of Arlington, Va. Wrenn, who has been president, chief operating officer and a director since 1991, replaces Kenneth H. Harper, who will remain chairman. CytRx Corp. of Norcross, Ga., named James M. Yahres vice president of finance and administration. Yahres was vice president of investor relations for Rhone-Poulenc Rorer. Steven Shoemaker was promoted to senior vice president from vice president of drug
Scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the Medizinische Biochemie, Universitat des Saarlandes, in Hamburg, Germany, have identified unique serum antibodies in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which could lead to the first serum diagnostic for the disease, as well as a means to monitor the efficacy of potential therapeutic agents. R. Glenn Smith and collaborators reported in Thursday's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine that patients with ALS, or
DNA Plant Technology (DNAP) and Meyer Tomatoes of King City, Calif. have formed a joint development agreement for the production and marketing of DNAP's VineSweet tomatoes - expected to be on the market in the first half of 1993. Meyer's expertise will be employed in the growing and prompt delivery of product to marketplace, and both companies will share marketing responsibilities, said Richard Sykes, DNAP's treasurer and vice president of finance. Production will be carried out at Meyer
In a new twist on antisense technology, researchers at Genta Inc. reported Thursday that they have developed a triple- strand approach to inhibiting protein synthesis. Unlike methods that involve the formation of triple helices consisting of an antisense oligonucleotide bound to double- stranded DNA, Genta's method involves binding two identical single-strand oligonucleotide sequences to a specific region of messenger RNA (mRNA). "This creates a bulky molecular knot which is very effective at
If earthquakes were predictable, would Californians really want to know in advance when to expect disaster? It's the same with Huntington disease H or used to be H until 1983. Insidiously, this genetic malady usually strikes its victims in their 30s and 40s. By that prime-of-life age, they have often married and had children to carry the mutant Huntington gene into the next generation. In 1983, molecular geneticist James F. Gusella led a multinational research team that pinpointed a missing
Bringing timely good cheer to the biotechnology industry, the FDA approved late Thursday Recombinate Antihemophilic Factor (Recombinant rAHF) developed collaboratively by Genetics Institute, Inc. (GI) and Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Hyland Division (Baxter). News of the approval makes Recombinant rAHF only the second biotechnology product to make it through the FDA this year and Cambridge, Mass.-based GI's first U.S. product approval. The result of a 10-year research and development
The FDA announced this week the final rules for its accelerated drug approval process that will make more experimental drugs available quickly if the drugs show promise in treating fatal or disabling diseases. The new rules are the long-awaited result of a draft regulation approved by FDA Commissioner David Kessler on Aug. 30, 1991. A draft version was made available for public comment in April. An FDA representative said the new rules are "virtually unchanged" from the version proposed in
Now that recombinant microbes are making their mark in drugs and foods, suggested bacterial geneticist Neil H. Mendelson, it's time to assign them industrial chores. He has put a genetically engineered Bacillus subtilis strain to work crystallizing metals on its cell wall matrix. Last Friday's issue of Science reported this teaching an old bug new tricks under the title "Production and Initial Characterization of Bionites: Materials Formed on a Bacterial Backbone." Mendelson, who teaches
Genentech Inc. announced Wednesday that it has been issued a U.S. patent relating to human nerve growth factor (NGF) made by recombinant DNA technology. Patent No. 5,169,762 covers nucleic acids, vectors and host cells used to make recombinant NGF. The South San Francisco, Calif., company (NYSE:GNE) already has a counterpart European patent on NGF, the validity of which it successfully defended earlier this year in opposition proceedings brought by Syntex Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. "The patents
MicroProbe Corp., a private oligonucleotide company based in Bothell, Wash., announced that it had received a $50,000 Phase I small business innovation research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop DNA probe-based genetic tests for type I insulin-dependent diabetes and for rheumatoid arthritis. The grant will go toward showing the feasibility for direct detection of a specific gene associated with each disease, said R. Michael Gendreau, vice president of R&D of the
A polyclonal antibody product for treating an autoimmune disease, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), was able to increase the platelet count in 60 to 80 percent of the 210 patients enrolled in a Phase III clinical trial. Speaking at the 34th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology this week in Anaheim, Calif., James Bussel of the Cornell Medical Center-New York Hospital said that the product, WinRho SD, was administered to HIV-infected and uninfected patients with ITP in
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking technology licensing and cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) proposals from pharmaceutical or biotech companies for stabilizing nitric oxide compound technology developed by Larry Keefer of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Scientists at the NCI-Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center have found that nitric oxide/nucleophile complexes can be used for the controlled biological release of nitric oxide
Biocode Ltd., a subsidiary of Shell Ventures U.K., announced Wednesday that it has been purchased by its management, in collaboration with a consortium of U.K. and U.S. investors, led by Genzyme Corp.'s founder Henry Blair. Biocode's current executive directors, Tim Wilkinson and Colin Garner, will manage the new company as managing director and R&D director, respectively. Biocode has developed antibody-based technology that directly identifies counterfeit or adulterated products, traces
MGI Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:MOGN) of Minneapolis announced Wednesday that it has granted European rights for Salagen to Eurocetus BV of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Salagen (pilocarpine) is a potential treatment for the severe dry mouth that results from radiation used to treat head and neck cancer. The countries included in this collaborative agreement include all members of the European Community, the countries in the European Free Trade Association and the former Eastern Bloc countries in Europe
Enzon Inc. (NASDAQ:ENZN) of Piscataway, N.J., announced Wednesday that it has granted Hybritech Inc., an Eli Lilly subsidiary, a non-exclusive license to its single-chain antigen- binding (SCA) protein technology. R. Douglas Hulse, Enzon's vice president of business technology, said, "This agreement represents a major step in our licensing program for the SCA protein technology." Enzon announced a similar agreement with Baxter International Inc. on Monday. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants
BioChem Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:BCHXF) of Laval, Quebec, announced Wednesday that its investigational new drug (IND) application on lamivudine for treating hepatitis B has been approved by the FDA. The company said that it plans early Phase II dosing trials in Canada and Europe as well. Glaxo Group Ltd. is responsible for funding and conducting the clinical development and registration of lamivudine. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
OraVax Inc. announced that it has filed two patent applications on peptic ulcer vaccines. The applications describe methods of oral immunization against Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes most peptic ulcers and gastritis. H. pylori has also been implicated as a major cause of gastric cancer. Researchers Pierre Michettie and Andre Blum at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudopis in Lauzanne, Switzerland, purified the H. pylori urease enzyme, linked it to an OraVax vaccine
Crop Genetics International Corp. (CGI) said Tuesday that its partner for its insecticidal virus (IV) program, Du Pont Agricultural Products of Wilmington, Del., has committed a further $2 million for the project. CGI has been concentrating on the low-cost production of insecticidal viruses during the past year, according to Todd Taylor, CGI's director of business development. Du Pont has focused on the field and formulation development. One industry analyst said that although the IV product
Genetic Therapy Inc. announced Tuesday that it has begun the first human clinical trials of gene therapy to treat brain cancer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), using GTI's vector system. GTI's vector systems are being used to transfer the gene for an enzyme called thymidine kinase into dividing tumor cells. "What we're putting in are producer cells, the cells that produce the vectors," GTI spokesman Marc Schneebaum said. For surgically accessible tumors, the tumor is "debulked," or
Telios Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday that it filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the public offering of 4 million shares of its common stock by Hambrecht and Quist Inc. and Prudential Securities Inc. Telios (NASDAQ:TLIO) of San Diego said it will use the proceeds from the offering for ongoing and planned research and product development. Telios stock closed up 25 cents a share on Friday to $8.25 (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights