BRUSSELS, Belgium - A biotechnology-derived vaccine targeted at the pre-erythrocytic stage of malaria received backing from the European Union (EU) in an unusual type of research support aimed at helping the vaccine's developer, SmithKline Beecham Biologicals SA, demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. A three-year program of trials is to be run in West Africa, following promising Phase I/II volunteer studies with the circumsporozoite protein-based antigen obtained by recombinant DNA

LONDON - The commercialization of cloning has accelerated with disclosure that PPL Therapeutics plc - which produced the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep - has entered a research collaboration with ProBio America Inc., holder of rights to the Honolulu cloning technique. PPL said it intends to develop this new nuclear transfer method to clone pigs for use in xenotransplantation. The Honolulu cloning technique was developed by Ryuzo Yanagimichi and colleagues at the University of Hawaii

* Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc, of Royston, U.K., has completed the purchase of the U.S. company Aptein Inc. It said Aptein's application for a European patent for its polysome display technology was granted July 15.

LONDON - The Bioscience Innovation Centre plc (BIC), of Cambridge, which claims to be Europe's first purpose-built biotechnology incubator offering in-house mentoring services, has proposed raising £1 million via an offer on OFEX. It will use the money to fund identification, selection and mentoring of companies to be housed in its building, and will take an equity stake in those firms. OFEX is an unregulated trading facility for shares dealing in unquoted companies. It is operated by J. P

BRUSSELS, Belgium - "A new, positive mood in biotechnology" in Europe is being ascribed in part to the work of the European Union-sponsored Biotechnology and Finance Forum. The forum, which in May held the first European conference bringing together biotechnologists and investors, is a joint exercise with the European Association of Securities Dealers. It is a key factor in what Bruno Hansen, the European Commission's (EC) director for life sciences and technologies, has saluted as "the coming

SYDNEY - Disclosure of another small step in the development schedule for PI-88, an anti-solid-tumor drug being developed by Progen Industries Ltd., proved enough to drive up the company's share price last week. Progen reported it had reached agreement with an unnamed contract research organization in the U.K. to undertake a Phase I trial of the drug, and its share price jumped 17 percent, or A$1.25, to A$8.75. By close of trading on the Australian exchange Monday, the share price had

MONTREAL - The technique of using light-activated drugs to kill cancer cells in solid tumors in the body has received a great deal of attention in recent years. Theratechnologies Inc., of Montreal, is employing the process in a different way. The company has developed a photosensitive molecule, TH 9402, as well as an easy-to-use photodynamic device that helps eradicate cancer cells outside of the body. The ex vivo photodynamic purging (PDP) process involves withdrawing a bone marrow or

LONDON - Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc claimed a unique mode of action for galantamine (Reminyl), its treatment for Alzheimer's disease, when results of recently completed U.S. Phase III trials were presented to the Sixth International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders. Like Alzheimer's treatments already on the market, galantamine inhibits one of the enzymes that breaks down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Unlike other agents, however, it also appears to work on

MONTREAL - Research and clinical data presented at the recent 12th International AIDS Conference revealed that resistance to the latest antiviral therapeutics is a continuing concern in the fight to overcome the deadly disease. Oleg Romar, chairman and CEO of Supratek Pharma Inc., told BioWorld International, "Even with some of the excellent drug combination therapies that are available today, there is a rapidly developing need for novel anti-HIV drugs due to resistance, which affects between

SYDNEY - With the market launch of its first product, the flu-cure Relenza, within sight, Australian company Biota Holdings Ltd. expects to start making profits by the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001. In a talk to the Securities Institute of Australia (an organization for professional investors) in Melbourne, Biota Managing Director Hugh Niall said Biota's development partner, Glaxo Wellcome plc, of London, expects to file for FDA approval of Relenza in the fourth quarter of this year. That

SYDNEY - Australian pharmaceutical firm F.H. Faulding & Co. Ltd. and a government research organization have developed an all-purpose drug-delivery system and are now looking for drugs to use with it. As one immediate result of the joint effort, the two organizations have developed a treatment for the skin disease psoriasis that has proved effective in proof-of-principle human trials, Faulding executives said. Faulding, of Adelaide, and a Sydney-based division of the government's

SYDNEY - After successfully acquiring a listed biotech company, Biotech International Ltd. plans to raise A$30 million from American investors by spinning off a blood-clot imaging technology acquired along with the company. Biotech, of Perth, Australia, has disclosed the new, as-yet-unnamed one-product corporation will be based in San Diego, where Biotech has close industry ties, and will be listed. In a detailed document outlining the company's plans for the future, released to the

HAMBURG, Germany - Eradicating the seeds of cancer relapse is the goal of the German firm Micromet GmbH. The Munich company develops new drugs against micrometastatic cells and has just been awarded a DM2.4 million grant from the German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMBF). A clinical trial of Micromet's first lead molecule, an antibody-based compound, is expected to start by the end of this year. Metastatic relapse is one of the major causes of mortality in cancer patients. In spite

LONDON - Even if they have been told about it beforehand, most new parents are taken aback when they see the contents of their baby's first dirty nappy. The baby's first stools, known as meconium, are sticky and almost black, resembling tar or treacle. Most babies pass the first meconium after delivery, but in a small percentage of cases they pass meconium while still in the uterus, with the risk that the substance may enter their lungs. Meconium aspiration syndrome may result, which can be

LONDON - Cash burn at British Biotech plc rose by a massive £19 million last year to £51 million, according to financial results for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1998. The Oxford, U.K., company recorded a loss of £44.9 million after taxes, up from £28.9 million the previous year. This left Chairman John Raisman to admit, "The 1997-1998 financial year was a disappointing one for the company and its shareholders." To make matters worse, the unauthorized unblinding of two of the company's

DUBLIN, Ireland - Surgen, a 50-50 joint venture of the French genomics firm Genset SA and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), aims to become involved in two or three major clinical trials within the next two years. The company was established to carry out large-scale human genomics studies in the area of cardiovascular disease Pascal Brandys, chairman and CEO of Paris-based Genset, outlined this target on a visit to Dublin last week for the official launch of Surgen, which was

LONDON - Shield Diagnostics Group plc, the company which has ambitions to replace cholesterol tests with its Activated Factor Twelve (AFT) diagnostic as a predictor of cardiovascular disease risk, reported a profit of £462,700 for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998, compared with a loss of £1.33 million in 1997. The fiscal 1998 profit was on turnover of £7.43 million, up from £5.75 million a year earlier. However, the stock price fell by 72.5 pence to £5.10 when the financial results were

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Concern that changes in manufacturing processes could alter the consistency of biotechnology-derived products is pushing European drug authorities toward new rules. The European Union's Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP), the senior scientific advisory group to the European Medicines Evaluation Agency, in London, is planning a concept paper on the demonstration of comparability of biotechnology-derived products. The CPMP's biotechnology working party (BWP

* PPL Therapeutics plc, of Edinburgh, Scotland, released preliminary data from a Phase II cystic fibrosis study of human alpha antitrypsin (AAT) extracted from the milk of transgenic sheep. The company also said the FDA granted PPL's first investigational new drug application, allowing a further Phase II trial to be carried out in the U.S. Data from a 22-patient Phase II study showed AAT was safe and well tolerated at a range of doses. There also were indications of reductions in two markers of