• Alizé Pharma, of Lyon, France, has raised €3 million (US$4.27 million) of funding. A new investor, SHAM, an insurance company, led the round. Existing investors, Octalfa SAS and CEMA Inc. also participated. Including this new round, Alizé Pharma Group has raised €4.8 million from those three investors since its creation in 2007. The funds raised will allow Alizé Pharma to finalize the optimization and formulation of a first drug candidate for AZP-01 and to file a clinical trial application to undertake the clinical development of its Asparec product.

• Immunomedics Inc., of Morris Plains, N.J., filed papers with the SEC saying it planned to raise $151.1 million by selling stock and warrants. The company said it may issue any combination of up to 20 million shares of common stock and 3 million warrants. Last week the company's shares jumped 277 percent when epratuzumab had a 24.9 percent treatment advantage over placebo in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in a Phase IIb dosing study. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 28, 2009.)