Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday said it has completed a public offering of 2 million shares at $19.25 per share. Of those shares, 60,000 were sold by a selling shareholder and 1.94 million were issued by the La Jolla, Calif., company. Agouron grossed $37.3 million. After the offering, the maker of drugs based on the molecular structures of proteins has 6.8 million shares outstanding. Underwriters PaineWebber Inc., Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Inc. and Hambrecht & Quist Inc. have
Interferon Sciences Inc. has netted $8.5 million through a public offering of 2 million shares priced at $5 per share, the New Brunswick, N.J., company said Wednesday. Interferon shares (NASDAQ:IFSC) closed at $7, up $1.50. Underwriter Commonwealth Associates has an option to buy an additional 300,000 share overallotment. Interferon had announced in June that it would offer 1 million shares of convertible preferred stock at $10 per share. Interferon is developing alpha interferon-based
In separate announcements late Tuesday, Repligen Corp. said it is dissolving its collaboration with Merck & Co. Inc. to develop an anti-infective monoclonal antibody against AIDS, and Merck said it has reached a $13 million agreement to develop similar therapeutics with MedImmune Inc. Repligen will reacquire from Merck its rights to the monoclonals and will continue the program on its own from its cash reserves. Repligen of Cambridge, Mass., said details of the reacquisition have not been
WASHINGTON -- The National Institutes of Health's application for a patent on partially sequenced DNA fragments reflects the increasingly aggressive posture the NIH is taking toward government-derived intellectual property and transferring technology to private industry. NIH has filed a patent application for about 340 partial complementary DNA (cDNA) sequences obtained by Dr. Craig Venter of the Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke, and intends to file on an additional 1,500
Hycor Biomedical Inc. on Tuesday said it has received Food and Drug Administration approval to market its Pyloragen Helicobacter pylori tests. H. pylori is a bacterium associated with chronic gastritis and peptic ulcers. It is implicated in gastric cancer. Hycor (NASDAQ:HYBD) said its serological test produces results faster than any other FDA-approved product. In recent months, Whittaker Bioproducts Inc., Enteric Products Inc., Biomerica Inc., Meridian Diagnostics Inc. and Quidel Corp. have
SAN FRANCISCO -- Closing arguments were expected to wind up today in the patent infringement trial in U.S. District Court here between Xoma Corp. and Centocor Inc. over competing antibodies to treat gram-negative sepsis. Jurors are being asked to decide four issues: Has Centocor proved that Xoma's U.S. patent No. 4,918,163 is invalid? Has Xoma proved that Centocor literally infringed Claim 7 of the patent? Has Xoma proved that Centocor infringed Claim 7 under the doctrine of equivalence? Does
MicroCarb Inc. on Tuesday said it has developed a prototype diagnostic receptor-based assay for verocytotoxin-producing bacteria. The Gaithersburg, Md., company said its assay is the first rapid diagnostic for E. coli 0157:H7, as well as for other toxigenic serotypes in humans, animals or foodstuffs. MicroCarb's technology is based on carbohydrates that occur naturally in humans and animals and that are receptors for the attachment of disease-producing bacteria and their toxins. The test
Cel-Sci Corp. Tuesday said it has started a second Phase II study of its BC-IL lymphokine cocktail, in malignant melanoma that has metastasized and has failed to respond to other therapies. The cell culture-derived mixture of lymphokines currently is in Phase II clinicals for head and neck cancer. Malignant melanoma is now the fastest-growing cancer in the United States, according to the company, which cited estimates that one in 90 people will have the disease by the year 2000. (c) 1997
Biomira Inc. announced on Monday a three-year project totaling about $15 million (C$17 million), supported by the Canadian government, to develop radiolabeled monoclonal antibody- based agents for the detection and potential therapy of cancer. The technology will use Biomira's monoclonal antibodies conjugated with radioisotopes developed by Nordion International Inc. to target cancer tissue either for diagnostic imaging or therapeutic attack. "Canadian industry must be competitive, and this
Synergen Inc. stock has climbed $3.75 in the past two sessions, closing Monday at $72, on prospects that its Antril IL-1 receptor antagonist might be used as an anti-bacterial therapy. Researchers at Tufts University reported Friday in Science that interleukin-1 can act as a growth stimulant for disease- causing strains of a common bacteria. The scientists also found that an agent that blocks IL-1 from binding to its cell surface receptor blocked the stimulatory effect of IL-1. The researchers
Marrow-Tech Inc. on Monday announced initial results from clinical tests of its living skin replacement, which is performing well in helping to heal burns without prompting rejection. The results, presented Saturday at the International Symposium on Wound Healing and Wound Management in Chicago, showed that the living dermal replacement can allow consistent growth of a patent's own skin over the graft, without infection or evidence of rejection by the immune system. To date, more than 30
Biocine Co.'s gp120 AIDS vaccine will be tested for the first time in people in a Phase I trial to begin at San Francisco General Hospital (SFG) this week. Biocine, a joint venture between Chiron Corp. of Emeryville, Calif., and Ciba-Geigy Ltd. of Basel, Switzerland, manufactures the vaccine, a recombinant version of a viral coat protein. The recombinant gp120 was designed from a strain of HIV called SF2 isolated at the University of California, San Francisco. In animal studies, the protein
A blood concentrate purified with a monoclonal antibody to Factor VIII, the protein required to treat the most common form of hemophilia, may help hemophiliacs infected with HIV remain free of AIDS symptoms, according to a clinical study in Italy. Using 20 infected but asymptomatic hemophiliacs randomly assigned to either antibody-purified or a less pure concentrate, the research team at a Naples hospital found that the group given the purified concentrate did not deteriorate over the 96-week
Fruit ripening can be blocked by antisense RNA directed at the gene for ethylene production in tomatoes, according to scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. Ethylene is the agent that turns fruit soft and ripe. Key to ethylene formation within fruit is the synthesis of an enzyme to form the gas. Researchers at the university's Plant Gene Expression Center placed antisense RNA, derived from the sequence of the gene that codes for the rate limiting enzyme, into tomato plants to
Idexx Laboratories Inc., a developer of veterinary immunoassays, has acquired Fermenta Animal Health Co.'s diagnostics business for an undisclosed amount of cash. Fermenta, which is owned by Fermenta Netherlands B.V. and is based in Kansas City, Mo., markets tests for equine infectious anemia, pseudorabies, feline leukemia, canine parvovirus and canine heartworm. Idexx of Portland, Maine, sold 1.6 million shares for $15 in an initial public offering in June. Idexx stock (NASDAQ:IDXX) closed at
Closing arguments in the patent trial between Xoma Corp. and Centocor Inc., scheduled to begin on Monday, have been rescheduled to begin today. The trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco was delayed when a major fire in the Oakland- Berkeley Hills prevented some jurors from reaching the courthouse. Xoma and Centocor have competing antibody products to treat gram-negative sepsis. Xoma stock (NASDAQ:XOMA) rose $1.25 on Monday to close at $16.50. Centocor (NASDAQ:CNTO) dropped $2, closing at
Scientists at Cortech Inc. in Denver have developed antagonists to kinins that have shown an ability in animal models to prevent death from septic shock. Kinins are made in many tissues and have potent properties in common, most notably that they produce pain and inflammation. Bradykinin is the best-known, and is implicated in many diseases, including arthritis, pancreatitis, circulatory shock, migraine, psoriasis and asthma. Cortech presented data on its kinin blockers at a September
Oncotech Inc. will perform in vitro drug activity tests on individual patient's kidney cancer tissue at reduced rates under an agreement announced Monday with the National Kidney Cancer Association, an organization of patients and physicians. The tests will help doctors plan patient-specific cancer therapy. There are 25,000 new cases of kidney cancer diagnosed annually in the United States and 10,300 Americans die from the disease each year. Kidney cancer is highly resistant to chemotherapy
Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday that it has signed an agreement with Eisai Co. Ltd., granting Eisai an exclusive license in Japan to develop and market an Isis antisense drug to treat ocular and genital herpes infections. Under the terms of the agreement, Isis will receive a "substantial" up-front licensing fee and milestone payments, said Chief Executive Officer Dr. Stanley Crooke. "Milestone payments for the two indications will generate significant revenues for Isis in the next several
A monoclonal antibody developed in collaboration by Repligen Corp. and Merck & Co. Inc. has shown promise as an anti- infective against HIV in a chimpanzee study. Repligen said Friday the result "indicates it may be feasible to develop an anti-infective to prevent HIV in humans." A chimpanzee injected with infectious doses of HIV-1 and then infused with monoclonal antibody to the V3 loop of the virus has remained free of HIV infection since the test was begun in March. A control animal exposed
Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday said it has completed a public offering of 2 million shares at $19.25 per share. Of those shares, 60,000 were sold by a selling shareholder and 1.94 million were issued by the La Jolla, Calif., company. Agouron grossed $37.3 million. After the offering, the maker of drugs based on the molecular structures of proteins has 6.8 million shares outstanding. Underwriters PaineWebber Inc., Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Inc. and Hambrecht & Quist Inc. have