Enzo Biochem Inc. on Wednesday said it is offering holders of the company's debentures a new proposal to convert their notes to equity at a lower price in an attempt to restructure the $30 million in defaulted debt. The Farmingdale, N.Y., company will temporarily reduce the conversion price of its 9 percent convertible subordinated debentures due in 2001 to $5 from $12.75. The lower price will apply from Jan. 2 through Jan. 31, 1992, but Enzo said it may extend the period at its discretion
Scientists at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, collaborating with Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. of Tokyo, have created a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The New York mice showed degenerative changes that more closely mimic the neuronal changes of the human disease than two other models reported earlier this year, and showed the damage at a relatively early age. Reporting today in Nature, the researchers demonstrated that mice given a gene that makes a portion of the amyloid
Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp. said Wednesday that it has received non-exclusive worldwide rights to patents held by The Wistar Institute for the use of monoclonal antibodies to stimulate an immune response against solid tumors. Wistar's patents cover the use of anti-idiotypic antibodies. When administered to a patient, anti-ids present an antigen that is indistinguishable from the tumor antigen. This induces an immunological response to the tumor. Idec plans to use the technology to extend the
Ciba-Geigy Corp. said Wednesday that a federal judge in Newark, N.J., has denied applications by both Ciba-Geigy and Elan Corp. for temporary restraining orders against the other company's transdermal nicotine patch. Ciba-Geigy sued Elan on Dec. 2, seeking a declaratory judgment that Elan's patent is invalid and that Ciba-Geigy's patch doesn't infringe that patent. Elan and its marketing partner, American Cyanamid, on Dec. 6 filed a counterclaim, alleging that Ciba- Geigy infringes their patent
Three companies completed public offerings on Wednesday, raising a total of $104 million. Biomira Inc. raised $44 million in a secondary offering of 4 million shares sold in the United States and Canada at $11 (C$12.50) per share. The stock (NASDAQ:BIOMF) closed Wednesday at $11.13, down 13 cents. The Edmonton, Alberta-based company, which is developing cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, has 17.4 million shares outstanding after the offering. ScotiaMcLeod Inc. and ScotiaMcLeod U.S.A. Inc
Enzon Inc. on Wednesday said it will collaborate with Genelabs Technologies Inc. to evaluate the application of Enzon's Pegnology, a polyethylene glycol-based drug delivery technology, to Genelabs' GLQ223 treatment for AIDS. Pegnology couples PEG strands to proteins that are used as therapeutic agents. This extends the blood-circulating life of the proteins and lowers their immunogenicity, said R. Douglas Hulse, Enzon's vice president for business development. GLQ223 (trichosanthin) has shown
Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. said it has formed its planned alliance with The Perkin-Elmer Corp. following the completion Wednesday of Roche's acquisition of Cetus Corp.'s polymerase chain reaction technology for $300 million. Perkin-Elmer of Norwalk, Conn., has acquired full rights to the PCR-related instruments systems business previously shared with Cetus through the former Perkin-Elmer Cetus Instruments (PECI) joint venture. Perkin-Elmer's acquisition of the PECI rights and its alliance with
Bio-Technology General Corp. has licensed Societa Industria Pharmaceutical Italiana S.p.A. of Italy to market its BioLon ophthalmic once the hyaluronic-acid based product is approved. The New York company has other licensees lined up for other European countries, including France, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, as well as the Scandinavian market. The product will be sold in ready-to-use syringes for use in cataract and lens surgeries, corneal transplants and glaucoma therapy. The company's
Alpha 1 Biomedicals Inc. has been sued by a stockbroker- dealer, who claims that false statements by the company caused him to suffer financial losses when he invested in its common stock. Alpha 1 learned on Dec. 2 that James P. Hammond, a licensed broker-dealer, and his wife filed the suit in the Supreme Court of New York in Onondaga County, said Robert Lanham, Alpha 1's vice president for finance. According to Lanham, the Hammonds claim that they established and maintained positions in Alpha
About 1 million of the 2 million shares of TSI Corp. convertible preferred stock outstanding have become convertible into common stock on a share-for-share basis. The shares became convertible once the 90-trading-day moving average price of the common stock exceeded $9.25, which occurred at close of trading on Dec. 6. Shares of the Worcester, Mass., company (NASDAQ:TSIN) closed Wednesday at $11.63, down 38 cents. TSI said it plans to file early next year for a public offering for an
The Liposome Co. Inc. said late Wednesday that the start of Phase III trials of its amphotericin B lipid complex have been delayed because some batches of the drug were out of specification. The Food and Drug Administration has requested manufacturing and production specification data before allowing the trials of the anti-fungal against cryptococcal meningitis to resume. The drug is licensed to Bristol-Myers Squibb, which is manufacturing the drug and conducting clinical trials. Trials were
Vestar Inc. has reported preliminary clinical data showing promise for its liposomal form of a cancer drug in treating Kaposi's sarcoma associated with AIDS. Alex. Brown & Sons analyst David Webber reconfigured his earnings model for the San Dimas, Calif., company on the news, reiterating his "strong buy" recommendation. The stock (NASDAQ:VSTR) picked up $1.50 to close at $18.50. It had fallen to $10.75 during the mid-November biotech sell-off. In a Phase I/II study described Monday at the
Shareholders of both Chiron Corp. and Cetus Corp. on Tuesday approved the proposed merger of the two companies. In a joint statement, the Emeryville, Calif., companies said the $300 million sale of Cetus' polymerase chain reaction technology to Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. is to be completed today and the merger is to be completed on Thursday. About 10 million new shares of Chiron stock will be issued in exchange for all shares of Cetus outstanding, at a ratio of three- tenths of a Chiron share for
ProCyte Corp. will expand the European trials of its hair growth enhancer based on promising preliminary results from its Phase II clinical study of Tricomin. The European trial, which began in January and is scheduled to end in the first quarter of 1992, showed that more than 80 percent of men had "significant normal hair growth" as early as two months after starting twice-daily application of the peptide-copper drug, according to Karen Hedine, spokeswoman for the Kirkland, Wash., company
Genelabs Technologies Inc. on Tuesday announced two collaborative agreements to develop its anti-cancer drug in Taiwan. The Redwood City, Calif., company will jointly develop GL331 with Yung Shin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and will collaborate on clinical research of the compound with the Institute for Biomedical Sciences of the Academica Sinica. Terms of the agreement to develop, manufacture and market the drug will be released next year. "It's a very large deal," Genelabs' chief scientific
Alza Corp. and its marketing partner, Marion Merrell Dow Inc., said late Tuesday that the U.S. District Court in San Francisco will rule late Thursday on a motion to enjoin the companies from selling the Nicoderm transdermal nicotine patch. The court earlier issued a temporary restraining order to delay the introduction of Nicoderm pending a decision on the preliminary injunction sought by Elan Corp. plc and American Cyanamid Co. Shares of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Alza (AMEX:AZA) were down 88
MedImmune Inc. said Tuesday that it has sold 2.5 million shares of common stock priced at $43.50 per share in a public offering. The company, which sold 500,000 newly issued shares, grossed $21.8 million. The remaining 2 million shares were sold by shareholders. After the offering, the Gaithersburg, Md., developer of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases and cancers has 13.2 million shares outstanding. MedImmune shares (NASDAQ:MEDI) rose 25 cents to $43.75 on Tuesday. Underwriters
Applied Immune Sciences Inc. has granted exclusive rights to Asahi Medical Company Ltd. of Japan to sell its compact cell separator devices in the Pacific Rim. Terms were not disclosed. The Menlo Park, Calif., company's other marketing partners include Fisher Scientific in North America and J-Bio S.A. for Europe. The sterile, compact MicroCELLectors separate cells for research in immunology, oncology, rheumatology and cell biology. Applied's larger CELLectors are in clinical trials for use in
Athena Neurosciences Inc. will begin Phase III testing of tizanidine as a treatment for the spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, a trial similar to the clinical testing recently completed by the drug's manufacturer, Sandoz, in the United Kingdom. Athena, based in South San Francisco, Calif., has licensed U.S. and Canadian rights to the drug from Sandoz Pharma, which markets it in more than 20 countries. Tizanidine, which acts at the level of the spinal cord to relax muscles, may
Genentech Inc. said Tuesday that The Wellcome Foundation Ltd. and Sandoz Pharma Ltd. have separately licensed rights under a basic Genentech patent covering recombinant chimeric immunoglobulins and the manufacturing methods to make them. Wellcome and Sandoz licensed rights under U.S. patent No. 4,816,567 to develop antibodies that bind to specific antigens. The antigens being developed by each company weren't disclosed. Genentech of South San Francisco, Calif., will receive royalties on
Enzo Biochem Inc. on Wednesday said it is offering holders of the company's debentures a new proposal to convert their notes to equity at a lower price in an attempt to restructure the $30 million in defaulted debt. The Farmingdale, N.Y., company will temporarily reduce the conversion price of its 9 percent convertible subordinated debentures due in 2001 to $5 from $12.75. The lower price will apply from Jan. 2 through Jan. 31, 1992, but Enzo said it may extend the period at its discretion