Deprenyl Research Ltd. said Friday that its Deprenyl USA Inc. unit has filed for an initial public offering of 1 million units with a proposed price of between $11 and $13 per unit. Each unit consists of two shares of common stock and one class A warrant to buy one share of common stock for $9. If the offering is completed, Deprenyl USA will have 4.2 million shares outstanding. New Jersey-based Deprenyl USA was formed to develop a drug for treating skin cancer. The drug, 5-aminolevulinic acid
Amylin Corp. said Thursday it has developed transgenic rats containing what it believes is the culprit gene for Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The rats, developed in collaboration with scientists at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology at the National University of Singapore, contain the gene for amylin and produce human amylin peptide in their pancreases. "We'll have conclusive proof in the next six months of our hypothesis that amylin is the culprit gene," said
Immunology Ltd. and Baxter Healthcare Corp. onThursday announced conclusion of a development and marketing agreement for a new drug, anti-CD45, that reduces rejection of transplanted kidneys. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Andrew Sandham, Immunology president, told BioWorld that the agreement ranks among the "top tier" of deals between pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. A Baxter spokesman said only that the agreement was a multimillion-dollar deal. Baxter of Deerfield, Ill
Closing arguments in the patent suit brought by Xoma Corp. against Centocor Inc. are scheduled for Oct. 21-22. The companies are battling for the market to treat gram-negative sepsis with rival antibodies. Berkeley, Calif.-based Xoma claims that its U.S. patent, No. 4,918,163, covers Centocor's Centoxin, a claim disputed by Centocor. The closely watched trial began in July in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Xoma stock (NASDAQ:XOMA) closed down 75 cents on Thursday at $14.25. Stock of
Marion Merrell Dow Inc. has extended for two years a strategic partnership agreement with Gensia Pharmaceuticals Inc. to develop products for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, Gensia announced Thursday. MMD will make a $5 million equity investment in the San Diego company, bringing the total invested under the agreement to $20 million and giving MMD about 14 percent of Gensia's stock (NASDAQ:GNSA). The agreement is targeted at the research and development of orally active adenosine
Alkermes Inc. said Thursday that it has filed for a secondary offering of 2 million shares of common stock, making it the third company this year to file a secondary offering only months after its initial public offering. Alkermes stock (NASDAQ:ALKS) closed down 50 cents at $16.25 on Thursday. Alkermes in July netted $18 million on an IPO of 2 million shares, including an overallotment, priced at $10. The Cambridge, Mass., company, which is developing products to deliver compounds across the
Anergen Inc. has grossed $14 million in its initial public offering of 1.75 million shares of common stock priced at $8. The stock (NASDAQ:ANRG) closed unchanged at $8.25 on Thursday. The Redwood City, Calif., company is developing protein-based drugs called AnergiX to treat autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis and rheumatoid arthritis. AnergiX are composed of the soluble form of major histocompatibility class (MHC) II combined with an epitope of an antigen for
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., chairman of the Ways and Means health subcommittee, challenged Amgen Inc.'s right to receive "gross" profits from Medicare reimbursements for its Epogen erythropoietin at a hearing Thursday on national health insurance reform. Stark sent a letter to the General Accounting Office on Tuesday requesting that it investigate options for lowering government costs for EPO and other single-source drugs, according to the lawmaker's office. Stark said the
Immunex Corp. stock lost $2 on Thursday, closing at $39.75, amid conflicting estimates of its share of the GM-CSF market and ethical concerns about a long-term purchasing agreement with American Healthcare Systems. Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Jeffrey Casdin wrote that Immunex appeared to be losing market share to Hoechst AG, its co- marketing partner for granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor, and that the deal with AmHS appeared to be aimed at stemming the erosion. Emphasizing that
Liposome Technology Inc. and Escagenetics Corp. said Thursday that they will explore combining LTI's Stealth liposomes with taxol produced by Escagenetics. Taxol, currently derived from the bark and needles of the Pacific yew tree, has been shown to be effective in women with advanced ovarian and breast cancer. Each company will bear its own costs in an exploratory phase, which could take three to six months or longer, said Raymond Moshy, president and chief executive of Escagenetics. The San
WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration's approval on Wednesday of the AIDS drug ddI broke new ground and may change the future development, approval and regulation of drugs for fatal diseases. The agency approved Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s ddI (dideoxyinosine) for use by patients who cannot tolerate AZT, which is the only other approved AIDS therapeutic, or are failing to respond to AZT therapy. Both drugs, plus the not-yet-approved ddC (dideoxycytidine), are nucleoside analogs that
Somatix Therapy Corp. said Wednesday that it has exclusive rights to a broad patent covering gene therapy that recently issued in Europe. The patent covers the use of genetically modified epithelial cells as a delivery vehicle for genetic material, regardless of the mode of gene introduction. Thus, methods such as homologous recombination, retroviral gene transfer and others are covered by the patent. Epithelial cells line the inner and outer surfaces of organs. In its cancer program, Somatix
Stock of Biogen Inc. closed up $1.13 at $34.38 on Wednesday after Prudential Bache analyst Joseph Edelman raised his rating to "buy" from "hold" on the Cambridge, Mass., company. His 12-month price target is $45 per share. Edelman said that the company's Hirulog anti-coagulant should come in for increased investor attention at the November meeting of the American Heart Association. Hirulog has the potential to replace heparin, currently a $500 million generic product, said Edelman. Hirulog
Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. has raised more than $59 million in an enlarged secondary offering of 2.6 million shares of common stock priced at $22.75 per share. The San Diego company, which had originally planned to sell 2 million shares, has 17.1 million shares outstanding after the offering. Alliance stock (NASDAQ:ALLP) closed at $22.50, down 63 cents, on Wednesday. Alliance now has sufficient funds for two-and-a-half to three years, said spokesman Stuart Gauld. The company is developing
Life Technologies Inc. has concluded an agreement giving it exclusive marketing rights to sell Whole Chromosome Paints, a novel staining technology, to the research community. The technology, co-developed by Imagenetics of Naperville, Ill., and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, uses specially developed fluorescent dyes to stain chromosomes for much more rapid and accurate detection of abnormalities. Researchers expect the technology to help explicate the genetic basis
Ecogen Inc. said Wednesday that it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to register 11.9 million shares of common stock. All of the shares, which include shares underlying certain warrants and options, are owned by existing stockholders of Ecogen. About 83 percent of the shares are owned by New York investor David Blech, who is Ecogen's largest shareholder. He owns 6.1 million shares, excluding warrants and options, or 41.7 percent of all shares outstanding. The Langhorne, Pa
DISPOSABLE DIAGNOSTIC TESTS This is another profile of a private biotech company that presented itself to venture capitalists attending the Mid- Atlantic Venture Fair '91 in Baltimore. ActiMed Laboratories Inc. The Mt. Laurel, N.J., company is developing single-use, disposable diagnostic tests. ActiMed has developed advanced prototypes of a total cholesterol test for consumers and a full lipid panel (total cholesterol, HDL and triglycerides) for doctors, and plans to file for Food and Drug
Nova Pharmaceutical Corp. has received a Phase I small business innovation research grant to assess the therapeutic potential of certain of its proprietary compounds in the treatment of stroke and epilepsy. The $50,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health will support further characterization of the Nova compounds that block receptors for kainate and AMPA in the nervous system. The receptors have been implicated in the two widespread neurologic disorders. The Baltimore-based company
American Biogenetic Sciences Inc. will redeem on Nov. 14 its outstanding class A warrants to purchase common stock, the company said Wednesday. Prior to that time, each warrant may be exercised to purchase for $3 one share of common stock (NASDAQ:MABX) and one class B warrant. The class B warrant will be exercisable for one share of common at $4.50. Unexercised warrants will be redeemed by the Notre Dame, Ind., company for 5 cents each. ABS is developing monoclonal antibody-based products to
Cell Genesys Inc. will participate in a joint AIDS research effort that is being funded by a government grant of $1.7 million, the company announced Wednesday. The technology of the Foster City, Calif., company will be the centerpiece of the effort to produce human T cells that can be transplanted into AIDS patients to treat their infections and malignancies. Over a three-year period, the grant will help support a collaboration with scientists at Harvard's Deaconess Hospital and the Medical
Deprenyl Research Ltd. said Friday that its Deprenyl USA Inc. unit has filed for an initial public offering of 1 million units with a proposed price of between $11 and $13 per unit. Each unit consists of two shares of common stock and one class A warrant to buy one share of common stock for $9. If the offering is completed, Deprenyl USA will have 4.2 million shares outstanding. New Jersey-based Deprenyl USA was formed to develop a drug for treating skin cancer. The drug, 5-aminolevulinic acid