• Cardiome Pharma Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, signed an exclusive in-licensing agreement with Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. for worldwide rights to LY458202 (GED-aPC), a clinical-stage drug candidate, for all indications. GED-aPC is an engineered analogue of recombinant human activated Protein C. Cardiome intends to develop the drug initially in cardiogenic shock, and anticipates beginning multidose Phase I studies in the second half of 2007. Under the terms, Lilly also agreed to provide Cardiome with access to intellectual property relating to the manufacturing of GED-aPC and to facilitate access to clinical and commercial production capacity at an established third-party manufacturing facility for a defined period of time. Financial terms include an up-front payment of $20 million payable to Lilly, plus development milestones not to exceed $40 million contingent on achievement of certain late-stage clinical milestones. Lilly also would be entitled to royalty payments on any commercial sales.

• Compugen Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel, entered a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., targeted at discovering and validating biomarkers for diagnosing the presence of unstable atherosclerotic plaques in coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease. Compugen will use its discovery-engine approach to predict and validate biomarkers related to active atherosclerotic disease. Its analysis will incorporate data derived from biological materials provided by the Mayo Clinic, as well as Compugen's expression and clinical data. Compugen will have exclusive commercialization rights to resulting products. Mayo Clinic is entitled to undisclosed compensation.

• GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, said the FDA approved once-daily Veramyst (fluticasone furoate) nasal spray to treat seasonal and year-round allergy symptoms in adults and children 2 years and older. It is expected to be available late this month. Veramyst is an intranasal corticosteroid delivered in mist form via a device.

• Halozyme Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, said Nasdaq has approved the company's application for listing on the Nasdaq Global Market. Halozyme common stock is expected to begin trading under the ticker symbol "HALO" on May 10. Until then Halozyme's stock will continue to trade on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol "HTI.R."

• Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said the European Commission has approved Sebivo (telbivudine), a new once-a-day oral treatment for adult patients with chronic hepatitis B and evidence of viral replication and active liver disease. Launches in the 27 countries covered by the approval are expected to start in the second quarter of 2007 beginning with the UK and Germany. The approval also triggers a milestone payment from its partner, Novartis Pharma AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, to Indenix. The amount was not disclosed.

• Lumera Corp., of Bothell, Wash., has extended its collaboration agreement with the Medical University of South Carolina toward developing an antibody array to measure the levels and modifications of patient mitochondrial proteins. Under the agreement, Lumera will retain rights to commercialize all jointly developed intellectual property. Specific terms were not disclosed.

• Oncolytics Biotech Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, has completed initial scale-up of its manufacturing process for Reolysin, its formulation of the human reovirus. The process improvements and scale-up to 40-litre batch size has resulted in increased total yields, a result of advancements in the media formulation used in the primary production of Reolysin and in the downstream processing steps required to generate finished product, the company said. The proprietary media formulation was developed by SAFC Biosciences, of Lenexa, Kan. The process at this scale now yields at least 20,000 doses at the maximum clinical dose for intravenous use, or 60,000 doses for local use. Further increases in scale are being investigated.

• Pro-Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newton, Mass., entered an agreement with Digna Biotech SL, of Pamplona, Spain, under which it will apply its carbohydrate technology platform in combination with Digna drugs for chronic hepatitis C infection. They will evaluate the ability of carbohydrate compounds, starting with Pro-Pharmaceuticals' Davanat, to improve the delivery of Digna's drugs. Digna was founded in 2003 to license from and capitalize on discoveries from CIMA, the translational medicine center for the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• Provista Life Sciences LLC, of Phoenix, signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic collaboration with Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz., to pursue the development of analytical protocols and platforms for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and to improve the efficacy of therapeutic monitoring and drug intervention. Sun Health is a private, nonprofit biomedical research center dedicated to the study of age-related diseases, and Provista is a biotech commercialization organization aimed at identifying and acquiring the rights to promising diagnostic technologies for commercialization.