LONDON — Genomics company Oxagen Ltd. has signed its first commercial deal with Astra AB, to look for disease markers and genes associated with atherosclerosis. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Astra will provide Abingdon, Oxfordshire-based Oxagen and its academic collaborators with research and development funding for five years. The agreement also includes milestone payments and royalties on drugs or diagnostics developed as a result of the deal. Trevor Nicholls, CEO of Oxagen, said
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
DUBLIN, Ireland — Elan Corp. plc will invest up to US$130 million in Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. under a strategic agreement slated to bring San Diego-based Ligand to profit. The deal could lead to Elan holding up to 20 percent of Ligand's stock. (See BioWorld News Bulletin, Sept. 30, 1998.) Ligand develops small-molecule pharmaceuticals with novel patterns of receptor-specific selectivity for unmet needs in oncology and in niche areas of men's and women's health. The company, which reported a
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
LONDON — In infancy, an encounter with the Epstein-Barr virus frequently passes unnoticed. Those unlucky enough not to meet with the virus until early adulthood can expect a dose of glandular fever, otherwise known as infectious mononucleosis. Starting like a bad case of influenza, the extreme fatigue which follows may mean a couple of months off college or work. But for an unfortunate few — one or two males per million — infection with the Epstein-Barr virus heralds the onset of a variety of
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
DUBLIN, Ireland — An environmentalist's challenge to the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision giving St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. permission to carry out field trials of genetically modified sugar beets was comprehensively defeated in the High Court in Dublin. Clare Watson, a member of Genetic Concern, which opposes the introduction of genetically modified foods to Ireland, had sought to overturn the EPA decision on the grounds that Irish legislation on the deliberate release
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
MONTREAL — Support is building for a national genomics research program in Canada. This follows the announcement at "The Crossroad of Biotechnology" 1998 symposium, held in Montreal last week, that the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada has become the second federally funded organization to join a new foundation to oversee genomics research, called Genome Canada. In June, the Medical Research Council of Canada endorsed a proposal by a genome task force to create Genome Canada to
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
LONDON — Gemini Research Ltd., a genomics company that specializes in discovering disease genes through the study of twins, has agreed to a research collaboration with Chiroscience Group plc to identify genes associated with obesity. The work will be carried out by Cambridge-based Chiroscience's genomics subsidiary, Rapigene Inc., of Seattle. Under terms of the collaboration, Gemini, also of Cambridge, will select genes relevant to obesity and identify candidate genetic markers, or single
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
DUBLIN, Ireland — Trinity Biotech plc has acquired the infectious-diseases diagnostics business of Cambridge Diagnostics Ireland Ltd., a subsidiary of Selfcare Inc., for US$280,000 in cash and 555,731 shares of Selfcare common stock, held by Trinity. The deal, valued at approximately US$4.5 million, resolves a longstanding impasse over a disputed tranche of shares in Selfcare, of Waltham, Mass. Dublin-based Trinity acquired the shareholding from the U.K. company Enviromed plc for US$2.6
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
BRUSSELS, Belgium — France's procedural decision in late September to stop authorization for cultivation of Novartis' Bt maize has thrown further confusion into an already-confused European regulatory puzzle. European Union (EU) environment ministers are due in early October to debate the next stage in amendments to the 1990 EU directive on the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Now, they will have to take on the implications of the French decision, too. The European
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
LONDON — Prolifix Ltd., focused on the discovery and development of small-molecule drugs that modulate the cell cycle, has replaced its CEO, Peter Lewis, after less than one year. Lewis was the first permanent CEO to be appointed since the company was formed in 1994, around intellectual property from the government-funded Medical Research Council. Lewis was formerly the research director of British Biotech plc, of Oxford, U.K. Lewis will be replaced by Birgit Stattin-Norinder, who joins the
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
LONDON — U.K. start-up Inpharmatica Ltd. aims to identify novel drug targets by integrating computer-modeling techniques with genomics data. The company, spun out of University College London (UCL), builds on work by Janet Thornton in the biomolecular structure and modeling unit. It will apply modeling techniques to genome sequences in order to recognize and predict the three-dimensional structure of the proteins for which they code. Then, through analysis and classifications based on protein
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
LONDON — Gene therapy specialist Oxford Biomedica plc, of Oxford, has signed two exclusive research collaborations with U.S. partners. The first, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Gene Therapy Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute, in Bethesda, Md., will bring together Oxford Biomedica's lentivirus gene vector technology with the NIH's dual virus vector system. The systems developed as a result are expected to be applicable to a wide variety of diseases
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 7, 1998
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BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
LONDON - Oxford GlycoSciences (OGS) plc, of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, announced results for the six months ended June 30 showing losses of £4.7 million, up from £3.8 million in the same period last year. Spending was up by £2.5 million, at £6.4 million, while turnover rose 42 percent, to £1.3 million from £900,000. In April, the company floated on the London Stock Exchange, raising £33.2 million net. It had £37.8 million in cash as of June 30, compared with £5.5 million a year earlier. OGS also
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
TORONTO - Research has shown that HIV, like many other infectious organisms, is a highly polymorphic virus that constantly mutates within infected individuals. The virus is so variable that it is unlikely that HIV viruses isolated from any two patients infected with HIV will have the same DNA sequence. Because of this rapid mutation rate, drugs used to treat HIV, while often effective for a period of time, eventually lose efficacy to newly resistant HIV mutants. Development of such resistant HIV
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
DUBLIN, Ireland - Trinity Biotech plc has acquired a lipoprotein enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay from Strategic Diagnostics Inc., of Newark, Del., for application in the diagnosis and prediction of premature atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Trinity expects the transaction to be earnings accretive "more or less immediately," said Trinity's chief financial officer, Jonathan O'Connell. Trinity has not issued any stock to fund the purchase, but
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
PARIS - Biovector Therapeutics has signed an agreement with Biomira Inc., of Edmonton, Canada, for the development of a vaccine against B cell lymphoma using the patient's own cancer cells. It will use the anti-idiotype, liposomal vaccine developed by Biomira, which focuses on the development of new therapies for cancer, and will be administered using the proprietary drug delivery technology of Biovector, based near Toulouse in southwestern France. The agreement provides for Biovector to
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
SYDNEY - The new Australian biotech company Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. intends to start Phase I trials of its anti-fat compound in May 1999, after six or seven months of preclinical toxicity testing, according to the company's prospectus. The prospectus issued for Melbourne-based Metabolic's initial public offering to raise A$8 million (US$4.7 million) to A$12 million says the Phase I study will test 20 to 100 healthy volunteers. Metabolic's managing director, Chris Belyea, said it
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
LONDON - Chiroscience Group plc, of Cambridge, last week signaled that it expects to move into overall profit in 2001 as it reported results for the six months ended Aug. 31 showing losses of £11.4 million, down 21 percent from the £14.4 million for the same period in 1997. The improvement was due to increased sales at Chirotech, the company's chiral manufacturing business, where turnover rose to £6.8 million from £5.9 million and profits to £2.5 million from £2.3 million. There was also an
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
REHOVOT, Israel - D-Pharm Ltd. has acquired the proprietary drug-targeting technologies of Polar Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Portland,Ore., comprising a package of five issued U.S. patents and several international patent applications. "Polar has produced polar lipid drug conjugates that are based on technology developed at the Oregon Health Sciences University," said Milton Yatvin, Polar's CEO, who will serve as a consultant to D-Pharm. The Polar technology complements D-Pharm's existing drug
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
LONDON - Core Group plc, which focuses on drug delivery, this week reported results for the six months ended June 30 showing losses up to £2.5 million (US$4.2 million) from £1.9 million in the same period of 1997. The company said this was on plan, with the increased loss due to rising development costs. There was £19 million in cash at the end of the period, down from £25.3 million as of June 1997 and sufficient to fund the company, based in Irvine, Scotland, through to the end of 1999. In
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 30, 1998
LONDON — Genomics company Oxagen Ltd. has signed its first commercial deal with Astra AB, to look for disease markers and genes associated with atherosclerosis. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Astra will provide Abingdon, Oxfordshire-based Oxagen and its academic collaborators with research and development funding for five years. The agreement also includes milestone payments and royalties on drugs or diagnostics developed as a result of the deal. Trevor Nicholls, CEO of Oxagen, said