Ivax Corp. and Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday that they have signed a letter of intent for Ivax to acquire Noven in a deal valued at $47 million. Ivax would acquire the 13.4 million outstanding shares of Noven stock (NASDAQ:NOVN) for $3.50 a share, payable in shares of Ivax common stock. Noven stock closed at $3, down 63 cents, on Friday. Based on its Friday closing of $30.63, Ivax (AMEX:IVX) would issue about 1.5 million new shares. Ivax has about 40 million shares outstanding before
Baxter Healthcare Corp. has asked for a summary judgment to dismiss patent litigation brought against it by Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. and The Scripps Research Institute. Rhone-Poulenc and Scripps allege that Baxter is infringing Scripps' Factor VIII:C patent Re. 32,011. Rhone-Poulenc and Scripps last week filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Delaware for a preliminary injunction to prevent sales of Hemofil-M by Baxter's Hyland Division. Hemofil-M is a non- recombinant, monoclonal-purified
Clinical Technologies Associates said Friday that Tredegar Industries, an investor in the company, will purchase an additional 112,500 shares of CTA common stock, netting CTA $900,000. Tredegar's holdings will total 326,786 shares, or 7 percent of shares outstanding. CTA, a drug delivery company based in Elsmford, N.Y., hopes to raise another $5 million from the sale of 841,250 shares of stock underlying warrants that were issued as part of the company's initial public offering. The warrants
Vaccine developer Univax Biologics Inc. has a pipeline of products reaching the clinic. The Rockville, Md., company derives hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulins (IGIVs) from human plasma containing specific antibodies induced by its vaccines. Univax recently began Phase I trials in healthy volunteers of a vaccine targeted at a bacterium that colonizes the lungs of children with cystic fibrosis. The mucoid exopolysaccharide pseudomonas vaccine is targeted at a mucus-producing strain of
APPLIED IMMUNE REORGANIZES MANAGEMENT ... Applied Immune Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:AISX) of Menlo Park, Calif., said it has appointed a new executive and reorganized its senior management to speed commercialization of its device-based therapeutic systems for treating immune-related diseases. James G. Smith, formerly corporate vice president of sales at Collagen Corp., has been named to the new position of senior vice president of clinical/regulatory affairs. Dr. Thomas B. Okarma, the company's
Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. and The Scripps Research Institute have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent sales of Hemofil-M Factor VIII:C by Baxter International Inc. and its Baxter HealthCare Corp. unit. Rhone-Poulenc and Scripps said they filed the motion on Thursday, pending resolution of a patent infringement lawsuit filed in 1987. The action in U.S. District Court in Delaware seeks to stop Baxter from allegedly infringing Scripps' patent Re. 32,011 for ultrapure Factor VIII
Stock of Centocor Inc. has jumped 40 percent since a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval of Centocor's septic shock product on Sept. 4. The stock (NASDAQ:CNTO) closed up $5.75 at $52.50 on Thursday, further spurred by positive comments made by Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Jeffrey Casdin after the market's close on Wednesday to Oppenheimer's national retail and institutional sales forces. Genetics Institute Inc. (NASDAQ:GENI) rose $3.25 to $38 after Cowen & Co. analyst
Research using the immune stimulant being developed by Ribi ImmunoChem Research Inc. has found that it can selectively affect different cells of the immune system, and thereby may prove useful in AIDS and in cancer. The new research was conducted at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and published in the September issue of the journal Infection and Immunity. The study shows that Ribi's monophosphoryl lipid A, a derivative of the powerful bacterial toxin that prompts the
Synthecell Corp. said Thursday that it has received $1 million from Elliott Associates L.P. of New York in the first closing of a fund-raising round the company hopes will total $5 million. Elliott is the lead investor in the round and will be represented on Synthecell's board by Charles K. MacDonald. Rockville, Md.-based Synthecell is developing antisense technology, and manufactures custom synthetic DNA and peptides. "Our strategy is disease-targeted rather than getting behind a particular
Diagnostic Products Corp. will acquire the remaining 60 percent of its distributor in the United Kingdom, Diagnostic Products (U.K.) Ltd. The British company will become a wholly owned subsidiary after the transfer. Diagnostic Products Corp., based in Los Angeles, markets more than 2,200 different diagnostic kits based on monoclonal antibodies and antigens made by recombinant DNA, said Sigi Ziering, company chairman. The British unit uses U.S.-made monoclonals in its manufacturing, which will
Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. (NASDAQ:ALLP) of San Diego has filed for an offering of 2 million shares of common stock. If the offering is completed, Alliance would have 16.5 million shares outstanding. Oppenheimer & Co., Lehman Brothers and Cowen & Co. are underwriters for the issue. The company plans to use the proceeds to continue development of proprietary pharmaceutical products based on perfluorocarbon and emulsion technologies. (c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.
Collaborative Research Inc. announced that it is offering an advanced cystic fibrosis testing service. The service will use a test developed by the company that detects concurrently the 10 most common mutations for cystic fibrosis. The process allows for a detection rate of more than 90 percent of cystic fibrosis carriers of Northern European ancestry, according to the Bedford, Mass., company (NASDAQ:CRIC). Competing tests detect a maximum of five mutations, yielding a detection rate of 80
Syntro Corp. has licensed European marketing rights for its cattle vaccine, IBR/Marker, to Hoechst Veterinar GmbH. Under the agreement, the Hoechst AG subsidiary will obtain regulatory approval, and Syntro is to receive licensing fees as well as manufacturing and royalty revenues. The herpes virus that the IBR vaccine fights is still targeted for eradication in Europe, so the marker aspect of the vaccine is more important there than in the United States, where herpes is already widespread
InnoVet Inc. announced Thursday that it has agreed to develop a new formulation of a proprietary Cyanamid Co. drug, using its patented drug delivery system. Cyanamid has the right to commercialize the formulation, with an option or license agreement to be negotiated. InnoVet (NASDAQ:IVET) of Boca Raton, Fla., has worldwide animal care marketing rights to the Microdroplet technology, which can deliver drugs that do not normally dissolve in the bloodstream. The technology encloses a microscopic
Genetics Institute Inc.'s licensee, Sandoz Ltd., on Wednesday received a European patent covering the process for making granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor. The patent, No. 188,479, is the first European GM-CSF patent to issue, said GI spokeswoman Melinda Lindquist. The patent covers the DNA, vectors, host cells and the process for making recombinant human GM-CSF. In response, competitor Immunex Corp. on Wednesday said it expected its European licensee to challenge the scope of
California Gov. Pete Wilson has vetoed legislation that would have banned some animal testing for product safety. Assembly Bill 110 would have prohibited the use of the Draize eye test and skin irritancy test to assess the safety of cosmetic and household cleaning products in California. Wilson cited "the overwhelming judgment of the scientific community" that alternatives "cannot now or in the foreseeable future completely replace the use of animals for testing." He also stated that the
California Biotechnology Inc. has received a Phase II small business innovation research grant of about $470,000 to develop further its compounds that could help treat heart failure and high blood pressure. This is the second Phase II grant the Mountain View, Calif., company has been awarded on its research into atrial peptide clearance inhibitors. The new grant will help select a lead candidate among the inhibitors the company has been testing. Preclinical studies show that the inhibitors
Oncor Inc. has reached an exclusive licensing agreement with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center for a set of DNA probes to diagnose acute myelogenous leukemia, the company said Wednesday. The Gaithersburg, Md., company (NASDAQ:ONCR) will add the new probes to its panel being developed for more rapid and inexpensive diagnoses of various leukemias. Tests for chromosome rearrangement using DNA probes on microscope slides could be conducted in a day rather than in the two weeks
Merrill Lynch analyst Maureen McGann on Wednesday initiated coverage of Ecogen Inc. with an "above average" rating. McGann said stock of the Langhorne, Pa., maker of Bacillus thuringiensis-based biopesticides appears undervalued in the intermediate and long term. Ecogen stock (NASDAQ:EECN) closed Wednesday at $10.88, up 88 cents. McGann's 12-month price objective for the stock is $14 to $16. McGann said she expects Ecogen to break even in 1993 and to become profitable in 1994. She forecasts a
Immune Response Corp. said it has finished enrolling HIV- infected patients into its Phase II/III clinical trial of a vaccine for AIDS. The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the vaccine, which contains twice-killed virus, is expected to end in September 1992. The trial at nine U.S. sites is sponsored by a joint venture between the Carlsbad, Calif.-based company and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. One hundred patients will be monitored for the effect of the therapeutic vaccine on the level of
Ivax Corp. and Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday that they have signed a letter of intent for Ivax to acquire Noven in a deal valued at $47 million. Ivax would acquire the 13.4 million outstanding shares of Noven stock (NASDAQ:NOVN) for $3.50 a share, payable in shares of Ivax common stock. Noven stock closed at $3, down 63 cents, on Friday. Based on its Friday closing of $30.63, Ivax (AMEX:IVX) would issue about 1.5 million new shares. Ivax has about 40 million shares outstanding before