• Allergan Inc., of Irvine, Calif., entered a deal under which it will acquire privately held Esprit Pharma Inc., of East Brunswick, N.J., for about $370 million in cash. Allergan expects the deal will close in the fourth quarter. Esprit's main products are Sanctura and Sanctura XR for treating overactive bladder, which were licensed from Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass. Allergan estimated 2007 revenues for Esprit's Sanctura and Estrasorb products would be $40 million to $48 million, with the vast majority from Sanctura. Indevus said under an amended deal and following the merger, Allergan will be responsible for all marketing and sales activities. Allergan plans to launch Sanctura XR in the first quarter of 2008, while increasing Esprit's current sales organization within a newly formed division to serve urologists and their patients. Upon closing, Allergan would pay Indevus an up-front license fee of $25 million against certain future payments owed to Indevus. Allergan also will pay Indevus royalties of 12.5 percent on sales of the Sanctura products, and will reimburse Indevus for required royalty payments to Indevus' licensors. For seven years, royalties payable to Indevus will be subject to a guaranteed minimum level, ranging from $8.1 million to $26.3 million in 2014. Indevus also would receive a milestone payment of $20 million in December 2013 based on certain market exclusivity conditions.

• AVI BioPharma Inc., of Portland, Ore., said it received a $2.66 million contract for development of a therapeutic Neugene antisense drug targeting dengue virus infections. That is the fourth contract related to an $11 million allocation for defense-related development of therapeutic antisense drugs, part of the 2006 Defense Appropriations Act. In May, three contracts valued at about $7.1 million were awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense for development of therapeutic drugs targeting Ebola virus infections, Marburg virus infections and exposure to Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) and ricin toxins.

• Carrington Laboratories Inc., of Irving, Texas, said its wholly owned subsidiary, DelSite Biotechnologies Inc., entered a technology evaluation rights license deal with an undisclosed biotech company for transdermal delivery of vaccines using its GelSite polymer, a high-molecular-weight anionic polysaccharide. Financial terms were not disclosed. DelSite has signed similar agreements with other companies, as well as with the National Institutes of Health, with which it is developing a modified GelSite polymer for use as a typhoid vaccine antigen.

• CellCyte Genetics Corp., of Kirkland, Wash., formed a new device division in order to develop, manufacture and market its line of stem cell cultivation and replication devices. CellCyte is developing stem cell-enabling therapeutic products designed to allow more efficient delivery and significantly increased retention of adult stem cells to diseased organs, such as the heart. Along with planned human trials for its therapeutics, CellCyte intends to develop a new stem cell cultivation device, or "bioreactor" unit, and market it for applications that will require cells to be grown under regulated oxygen concentrations.

• Cepheid Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., said it received two Veterans Affairs federal supply service schedule contracts covering the purchase of Cepheid's GeneXpert System and the Xpert MRSA test for the rapid detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The contracts are expected to streamline the acquisition process and ensure VA hospitals and other federal agencies can purchase the products without individual negotiations as they await funding for the next fiscal year.

• CuraGen Corp., of Branford, Conn., appointed Timothy Shannon president and CEO, effective immediately. He replaces Frank Armstrong, who will remain with the company through 2007 to assist with the transition, and will continue as a director until the stockholders meeting in May. Shannon has served as executive vice president of research and development and chief medical officer of CuraGen since September 2002.

• Cytori Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, said it was awarded a $250,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop adipose-derived regenerative cells as a treatment for vascular disease. Regenerative cells within adipose (fat) tissue include adult stem cells and other cell types that have been shown to increase blood flow in and around damaged and oxygen-deprived tissues.

• Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Houston, said the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has dismissed, with prejudice, the securities class-action litigation originally filed in September 2006 against the company, four of its former officers and a current officer. The plaintiffs have a right to file an appeal.

• Immtech Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New York, said the FDA granted orphan drug designation to pafuramidine (DB289) for human African trypanosomiasis, which provides the company with financial and regulatory assistance and would guarantee seven years of marketing exclusivity upon approval. Pafuramidine is in Phase III trials in Africa. The drug also has received orphan status for pneumocystis pneumonia and malaria.

• MedImmune Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., said the FDA approved the expanded use of FluMist (influenza virus vaccine live, intranasal) in children 2 to 5 years of age. The expansion was based on data from a pivotal study involving more than 4,000 children in that age range, which showed a 54 percent reduction in cases of the flu in children receiving FluMist compared to those getting the traditional flu shot. The product now is approved for active immunization for the prevention of disease caused by influenza A and B viruses in individuals 2 years to 49 years of age, and the company anticipates shipping FluMist with the expanded label to health care providers in the coming days.

• Meditrina Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich., entered a contract manufacturing agreement for its lead product candidate, Femathina (MPI-674), with a unit of Pfizer CentreSource, which is part of New York-based Pfizer Inc. MPI-674 is an aromatase inhibitor in Phase II development that Meditrina is repurposing for the treatment of women's health conditions including endometrial thinning prior to endometrial ablations in premenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• Metabolex Inc., of Hayward, Calif., said Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, began high-throughput screening against an additional target from Metabolex's human gene database. Astellas is working to identify drug candidates by examining genes associated with insulin resistance and obesity. The decision to begin screening triggered an undisclosed milestone payment to Metabolex, which said the companies have identified more than 10 targets during their collaboration. Metabolex is entitled to receive sales royalties on any resulting products, and retains co-promotion rights in North and South America.

• Morphotek Inc., an Exton, Pa., subsidiary of Eisai Co. Ltd., said it received $2.3 million in funding approval from the U.S. Department of Defense to support the development of biologic-based monoclonal antibody therapies against biowarfare agents. Proceeds will be used to help further develop MAbs targeting botulinum neurotoxins. The company said further development of its products in the area will enable it to advance lead compounds in clinical studies. Morphotek is collaborating on the work with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases in Ft. Detrick, Md.

• OLAS Pharmaceuticals, of San Diego, said it achieved positive results from in vivo studies of growth hormone, DHEA and corticosterone. Results of the rat studies demonstrated that peripheral administration of certain classes of structurally distinct positive AMPA receptor modulators caused significant increases in baseline circulatory levels, and peak morning pulses, of growth hormone. Select AMPA modulators also triggered a significant increase in circulating DHEA in test subjects. Additionally, certain of the modulators caused a strong trend toward decreased levels of corticosterone, OLAS said.

• Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, said it reached a settlement agreement with Duke University and Eisai Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, related to a previously settled lawsuit filed by Orexigen and Duke over rights in an invention relating to the use of zonisamide to treat obesity. The agreement resolves the foreign aspects of the parties' dispute, and follows a December 2006 settlement relating to U.S. aspects of the dispute. From Orexigen's standpoint, the dispute related to its Empatic product, which is in a Phase IIb clinical trial in obesity.

• Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Waltham, Mass., said it received an expected notification from Nasdaq that it has not regained continued listing compliance. The company plans to request a hearing before a Nasdaq panel to ask for continued listing pending completion of its plan to demonstrate compliance.

• Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., reported preclinical data on SPI-1620, a selective endothelin-B agonist, showing that the drug produced more than a 300 percent transient and selective increase in blood flow to tumors, in animal models, resulting in an increased efficacy of cancer drugs while sparing normal tissues and organs. The drug improved the efficacy of radiation treatment in tumor-bearing mice by enhancing the reduction in tumor volume and improving survival, and it significantly enhanced the uptake and efficacy of anticancer agents in a prostate cancer animal model. SPI-1620 is in development for use with chemotherapy. Data were presented at an endothelin conference in Bergamo, Italy.