• Aeterna Zentaris Inc., of Quebec City, commenced an at-the-market financing, pursuant to its existing ATM sales agreement dated June 29, 2011. It will, at its discretion, from time to time sell up to 10.4 million common shares for gross proceeds of up to $16 million. McNicoll, Lewis, and Vlak LLC will act as agents for any such sales. Proceeds will support Aeterna Zentaris's pipeline of cancer therapies.

• ChemoCentryx Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., set a price range for its proposed initial public offering, in which it aims to sell 4 million shares priced between $14 and $16. At the midpoint, the offering would bring in $60 million in gross proceeds. ChemoCentryx filed an S-1 last year, hoping to raise about $69 million to support multiple clinical programs. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 18, 2011.)

• Quintiles Transnational Corp., of Research Triangle, N.C., invested £3 million (US$4.68 million) to gain a 27.5 percent stake in Oxford University spinout Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd. Quintiles and OCB signed a research collaboration and license agreement to produce biomarkers, and a consulting and marketing agreement for oncology and health care consulting services. Isis Innovation, a technology transfer company within the University of Oxford, licensed its CancerNav biomarker technology to OCB. The university also retains an equity stake in the new firm.