• Alseres Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Hopkinton, Mass., entered into a securities purchase agreement with Cato Holding Co. for the private placement of 200,000 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $1 per share. The financing resulted in total gross proceeds of $200,000. The company said it intends to use the net proceeds to satisfy amounts owed to Cato Research Ltd., a contract research organization.

• OctoPlus NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, completed an equity raising of €6 million (US$7.6 million) through a private placement of ordinary shares with new and existing institutional investors. The company's lead product is Locteron, a controlled-release formulation of interferon alfa for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C, which has been licensed to Biolex Therapeutics, of Pittsboro, N.C., and is being manufactured by OctoPlus. Locteron is currently in Phase II studies.