By Karen Pihl-Carey Staff Writer From the Atkins to the Zone, millions of obese people have tried diet after diet to lose the inches and pounds in order to live fuller, let alone slimmer, lives. But some biotechnology companies have long worked for a fat-reducing therapy that even Richard Simmons' Deal-A-Meal can't touch. The spotlight for now is on Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Regeneron Inc.'s Axokine, a second-generation ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) originally intended for amyotrophic

I. MODIFIED AGREEMENTS Biotech Co.* (Symbol) Pharma Co. (Country) Change from original agreement Disclosed Funding (M) Terms/Details (Date) 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals Inc. (DDDP) Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Germany) Extension to the December 1999 drug discovery collaboration through March 31, 2003 ND Agreement is to discover drugs for asthma and allergic disease; 3DP will receive an additional up-front payment, research and development funding, and is eligible for

Biotech Co.* (Symbol) Pharma Co. (Country) Product Disclosed Funding (M) Terms/Details (Date) Acambis plc (UK; ACAM; LSE:ACM) Swiss Serum and Vaccine Institute Berne (Switzerland) Oral typhoid vaccine ND Swiss Serum will fund all process development and supply of clinical trial materials and will manufacture the vaccine and supply it to Acambis; the companies will share the costs of the remaining trials of the vaccine; Acambis gains exclusive sales and marketing rights in the U.S. and

I. COMPLETED MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Company Acquired** (Country; Symbol) Acquired By Or Merged With (Country; Symbol) Date Announced Date Completed Value (M)*** Terms/Details Advanced Biotechnologies Ltd.(UK)* Apogent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:AOT) 4/11 4/11 ND Apogent acquired Advanced Biotechnologies, which logged sales revenues for 2000 of about $21M Armstrong Pharmaceuticals (division of Celltech Manufacturing Inc.) Andrx Corp. (ADRX) 2/12 4/2 $18 Andrx acquired Armstrong

By Randall Osborne Editor Lilacs are near blooming and robins have returned to the spring-warmed north, but biotechnology's winter of discontent goes on. As home windows are thrown open for breezes to refresh musty interiors sealed for months, the financing window remains stuck ­ and those behind the frosty glass might reasonably worry about a new Ice Age for raising cash. It seems like only yesterday when some in biotechnology were gloating over flameouts by dot-com firms, as if to prove

Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER Atrix Laboratories Inc. (ATRX) Leuprogel Leuprolide acetate for subcutaneous depot for injection; leuprolide is a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist Advanced prostate cancer Company closed enrollment for a Phase III trial (3/23); company submitted an NDA (3/27) AVAX Technologies Inc. (AVXT) M-Vax and O-Vax Autologous cancer vaccines Cancer FDA placed M-Vax and O-Vax trials on clinical hold (3/23

Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER British Biotech plc (UK; BBIOY) and BresaGen Ltd. (Australia; BSGNY; ASX:BGN) E21R Metalloenzyme inhibitor Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia BresaGen commenced patient recruitment for a Phase II study in Australia (3/6) Canfite Ltd. (Israel)* AFite Oral antitumor drug for adjunctive treatment with chemotherapy Cancer Company began Phase I trials in Europe and the U.S. (3/6) Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MLNM

Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER AEterna Laboratories Inc. (Canada; AELA) Neovastat Orally bioavailable; activates apoptosis of endothelial cells; also inhibits matrix metalloproteinases and vascular endothelial growth factor Metastatic renal cell carcinoma Phase I/II trial results showed a two fold increase in median survival time for patients treated with a higher dose of Neovastat (3/26) AltaRex Corp. (Canada; TSE:AXO; OTC BB:ALRXF) OvaRex MAb

By Randall Osborne Editor "Autologous." The word, to those unfamiliar with it, sounds vaguely like part of a computer procedure, such as "autologous sorting," or maybe the genus name of some rare, deadly (but non-existent) microscopic parasite, like "Autologous maleficias." In fact, the word means "from the same organism." Most often in biotechnology, it's heard in connection with bone marrow transplants, stem cell transplants, and cancer vaccines such as those developed by AVAX

A story in the April 2, 2001, issue of BioWorld Financial Watch should not have identified ImClone Systems Inc.'s monoclonal antibody cetuximab as being radiolabeled. Editor's Note: The correction already was made in BioWorld Online.

I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $261.78M Company Location Date Amt. (M) Details Acorda Therapeutics Inc. Hawthorne, N.Y. 3/9 $6 Acorda raised $6M in the second closing of a private venture financing round; the round brought in $33.7M in January Alchemia Inc. Redwood City, Calif. 3/29 $8.2 Investors included Start-up Australia, Medica Holdings, Biotech Capital and Rothschild Bioscience Australia Ardais Corp. Lexington, Mass. 3/19 $33.5 Ardais raised $33.5M in

Total: $185.49M Company (Symbol)# Type Of Financing Number Of Shares, Units Or Warrants Amount Raised (M) Investors; Placement Agents; Details (Date)@ Antares Pharma Inc. (MEDJ) Private placement of common stock 0.5S $3 Antares completed the final $3M of a $10M private placement; the first $7M was raised in early February (3/6) Atlantic Technology Ventures Inc. (ATLC) Common stock purchase agreement N/A $6 Fusion Capital Fund II LLC bought $6M of Atlantic's common stock (3/19

I. COMMENCED TRADING IN MARCH Company (Symbol) Date Filed Date Comm. Shares/Units (M) Price Shares Out (M) Lead, Other Underwriters Gross (M) Net (M) INITIAL OFFERINGS Andromed Inc. (MSE:AD; subsidiary of Theratechnologies Inc.; Canada)1 3/14 3/26 2.56U C$2.25 (US$1.43) N/A National Bank Financial Inc. Desjardins Securities Inc. Hampton Securities Inc. C$5.75 (US$3.65) N/A Seattle Genetics Inc. (SGEN)2 11/20 3/7 7S $7 29.19 J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. CIBC World

In the April 2, 2001, issue of Financial Watch, Proteus S.A., of France, should have been the company listed as the one entering a partnership with CEA-LETI, also of France, in the field of phenomics-based biochips. Proteus S.A. is not related to Proteus International plc, of the UK. Editor's Note: The correction already was made in BioWorld Online.

By Randall Osborne Editor It's a four-chambered muscle about the size of your fist, jumping with each beat (when it's healthy) like a rib-caged animal that wants out. Said by poets to be the internal headquarters of love, it's the treasure of the chest, the arterial hub, the pump after which engineers ­ consciously or not ­ may have modeled all other pumps. The heart. For biotechnology investors, the heart is just another organ, drugs for which may be "played" with profits in mind. And

Company (Symbol)* University/Non-Profit Type Of Agreement Product Area Details (Date) Aastrom Biosciences Inc. (ASTM) The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University Development agreement New cell-based therapies Project will be funded through a $2.2M grant; the work will be done through a Center for Cell Therapy, which will pursue cord blood stem cell therapies for leukemia patients and dendritic cell vaccines for cancer treatment (2/14) Advanced Biosystems Inc

By Randall Osborne Editor One of the historic leaps ­ or lurches, anyway ­ of biotechnology's stop-start growth was marked by the approval in 1995 of Malvern, Pa.-based Centocor Inc.'s clot-buster Reopro (partnered with Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis), which many say was the bellwether for monoclonal antibodies as "magic bullets" against disease. By the time genomics came along and swept everything into the background, the excitement over "monoclonals," as they're called, had begun to

Company* (Country, Symbol) Company* (Country, Symbol) Type/Product Area Terms/Details (Date) 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals Inc. (DDDP) Centocor Inc. (subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson; NYSE:JNJ) Agreement for worldwide rights to 3DP's orally active direct thrombin inhibitor program, 3DP-4815 3DP will receive an up-front cash payment of $6M and further payments of up to $44M based on milestones; Centocor will be responsible for development and worldwide commercialization (1/2) Abgenix Inc

* Comments by Shearman & Sterling partner Vicki Veenker on page 2, column 2, paragraph 3, in the Nov. 20, 2000, issue of BioWorld Financial Watch referred to the Oxford Gene Technology vs. Affymetrix Inc. case, and not to any cases involving Incyte Genomics Inc. * In the March 19, 2001, issue of BioWorld Financial Watch, Jeffrey Leiden should have been identified as Abbott Laboratories Inc.'s chief scientific officer, not the CSO of Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. Editor's Note: The