• Affymax Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., received a $10 million milestone payment from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., of Osaka, Japan, as part of the companies' exclusive global agreement to develop and commercialize Affymax's lead product candidate, Hematide. The payment follows the completion of Phase I testing of the anemia product in normal healthy volunteers in Japan.

• Althea Technologies Inc., of San Diego, received a Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Human Genome Research Institute to explore the potential for practical high-throughput and low-cost gene expression analysis. The grant proposes the development of gene expression profiling methods that make use of Althea's multiplexed PCR (XP-PCR) methods and the IsoCyte high-throughput laser scanner platform from Blueshift Biotechnologies Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif. The combined technologies may enable implementation of quantitative gene expression profiling in an automated high-throughput platform, providing highly specific and quantitative results for as many as 768 samples per minute.

• Bioenvision Inc., of New York, licensed exclusive rights to Putnam, Conn.-based Foster Corp. for manufacturing, marketing and distributing Oligon, its technology based on the antimicrobial properties of silver ions which is incorporated into FDA-approved medical devices. Under the terms, Bioenvision will have a revenue-sharing arrangement on future sublicenses and a royalty on all sales by Foster.

• Carrington Laboratories Inc., of Irving, Texas, said its wholly owned subsidiary, DelSite Biotechnologies Inc., granted a nonexclusive license to AriaVax Inc., a privately held firm in Gaithersburg, Md., for developing and evaluating an investigational vaccine against HIV infection using DelSite's GelSite polymer delivery technology. The program's objective is to create an effective peptide vaccine formulation that will enhance the immune system and also remain stable at room temperature so that it can be easily shipped and require no refrigeration. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Galapagos NV, of Mechelen, Belgium, said it granted Hillcrest Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, worldwide rights to develop its PPAR-delta technology in all fields. PPAR-delta, a drug discovery program addressing diabetes and obesity, has reached the stage of candidate drug selection. Galapagos is entitled to €770,000 in license fees, up to €27 million (US$35 million) in milestones, undisclosed milestone payments in Hillcrest equity and single-digit royalties on any resulting sales. Galapagos got the PPAR-delta technology, a regulator of metabolism control, through its acquisition of Inpharmatica Ltd. in December. Hillcrest, founded in 2006, is a portfolio company of Paramount BioSciences LLC.

• GenVec Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., signed a three-year contract with the Department of Homeland Security to support the development and manufacture of adenovector-based vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease. The company will receive up to $6 million in program funding the first year and up to $15 million over three years if the government exercises its annual renewal options. GenVec will be responsible for the development, production and regulatory approval of the vaccine, while the department will be responsible for conducting animal studies at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, located off Long Island's northeastern tip.

• HemoBioTech Inc., of Dallas, is paying about $780,000 to extend a sponsored research agreement with the Texas Tech University Health Science Center to focus on commercial development of the company's HemoTech product as a substitute for human red blood cells. Hemoglobin is purified from the cow blood and chemically modified to generate HemoTech.

• Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., signed a product license agreement with Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Marietta, Ga., to gain marketing rights to Luvox (fluvoxamine maleate) tablets, as well as fluvoxamine maleate extended-release capsules in the U.S., upon FDA approval. The extended-release capsules are under regulatory review in obsessive compulsive disorder and generalized social anxiety disorder in adults. Under the terms, Jazz made an up-front payment and will pay Solvay regulatory and sales milestones, plus royalties based on product sales. Specific terms were not disclosed. Solvay retains the right to market both products in the rest of the world.

• Nu Pharmas Inc., of Sarasota, Fla., acquired for an undisclosed amount the assets of Renaissance Nutraceuticals Inc., of Wilsonville, Ore. Renaissance Chairman and CEO Steve Parkinson was named the newly merged company's president and CEO, and Nu Pharmas founder Roderic Dale is its chairman and chief scientific officer. Nu Pharmas is a contract manufacturer of oligonucleotide products, and also develops homeopathic products and pharmaceuticals.

• PURE Bioscience, of San Diego, and Therapeutics Inc., also of San Diego, received approval from the FDA to begin testing a hand sanitizer based upon PURE's patented silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC) broad-spectrum antimicrobial in humans. Therapeutics Inc. filed an investigational new drug application with the FDA in December 2006 to enable initiation of the first trial of a product containing SDC as an active pharmaceutical ingredient. PURE granted Therapeutics a license to develop five SDC-based products for the treatment and prevention of dermatological and women's health-related bacterial, viral and fungal mediated diseases and conditions. Therapeutics anticipates filing four additional product applications over the next 23 months.