• Eisai Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, and MGI Pharma Inc., of Bloomington, Minn., said the Federal Trade Commission granted early termination of the statutory waiting period applicable to the firms' acquisition deal announced last month. Eisai agreed to purchase all outstanding shares of MGI for $41 per share, or about $3.9 billion. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 11, 2007.)

• Helix BioPharma Corp., of Aurora, Ontario, entered a collaboration with KBI BioPharma Inc., of Durham, N.C., to develop a process for preparing L-DOS47 in a freeze-dried powder format that can be stored for use in clinical trials. L-DOS47 is an antibody-based cancer drug that targets urease.

• Introgen Therapeutics Inc., of Austin, Texas, sold all of its 7.48 million shares in London-based RNAi company Silence Therapeutics plc. The shares were sold to new and existing Silence investors for 56.75 pence (US$1.11) each, a slight discount to Silence's (LSE:SLN) Wednesday closing price of 57.50 pence.

• Invitrogen Corp., of Carlsbad, Calif., entered an exclusive license deal with IMBcom Proprietary Ltd., a company affiliated with the University of Queensland's holdings company, to commercialize non-coding RNA content predicted by a proprietary algorithm and experimentally validated by the Australian university. Under the terms, Invitrogen will commercialize those sequences over the next few years, which will allow the company to expand its NCode microRNA microarray product line into the field of noncoding RNA profiling.

• PharmAthene Inc., of Annapolis, Md., said the Delaware Chancery Court denied a motion by New York-based SIGA Technologies Inc. to dismiss PharmAthene's complaint alleging that PharmAthene has a right to an exclusive license to develop and market SIGA's drug candidate, SIGA-246. PharmAthene said the court's ruling will enable the firm to proceed in its efforts to gain those rights, which it believes were part of companies' agreements signed in 2006. SIGA-246, a small-molecule antiviral drug for smallpox, was the primary focus of a June 2006 merger agreement between PharmAthene and SIGA, though SIGA pulled out of the deal four months later after gaining a $16 million government grant to support the product's development. In a separate statement, SIGA said it was disappointed that PharmAthene's lawsuit was not dismissed but added that it will continue to defend the matter vigorously. (See BioWorld Today, June 12, 2006, and Oct. 6, 2006.)

• Pharmaxis Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, said the Korean regulatory agency granted marketing approval of Aridol in asthma. The product will be distributed by Korean firm BL&H Co. Ltd. Pharmaxis said it will begin premarketing activities while seeking reimbursement approval through the national health scheme. The approval process is expected to conclude in the third quarter.

• Serenex Inc., of Durham, N.C., signed a deal with nonprofit CHDI Inc. under which CHDI will evaluate a number of Serenex's Hsp90 inhibitors as potential therapeutics for Huntington's disease. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Serenex will retain all rights to the molecules.

• Synvista Therapeutics Inc., of Montvale, N.J., signed an agreement for privately held Novel Therapeutic Technologies Inc., of Wilmington, Del., to conduct formulation work for a topical cream formulation of ALT-2074 in psoriasis. Synvista is developing ALT-2074 in cardiovascular disease, but executives said the drug is a logical choice for potential psoriasis therapy since it is designed to block tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-activated expression of cell adhesion molecules I-CAM and V-CAM while possibly avoiding the side effects associated with existing systemic anti-TNF biologics. The company expects a Phase II trial in plaque psoriasis to start in the middle of this year.

• Thallion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Montreal, resolved its dispute with CAP-232 licensor Expergen Drug Development GmbH. Thallion will pay Expergen up to C$418,880 (US$414,733) in up-front and milestone-based payments, plus 150,000 common shares, and both parties agreed to drop their legal actions concerning the Phase II cancer drug.

• Unigene Laboratories Inc., of Fairfield, N.J., said the FDA approved a modification for a key enzyme, which marks the first of two proposed improvements for its manufacturing process for calcitonin, the active ingredient in its osteoporosis nasal spray Fortical. The agency still is reviewing a second modification to the production process, which, if approved, is expected to improve batch yields of the product by a factor of 3.

• ValiRx plc, of London, said its subsidiary, Cronos Therapeutics Ltd., in conjunction with Cancer Research Technology Ltd., also of London, completed the final part of the first phase of preclinical studies on one of its cancer programs, a GeneICE therapeutics molecule. That research, to date, has shown the molecule to trigger cell death in ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancer cells. Treatments based on that GeneICE compound now will be investigated, with work being fully funded by a development grant. Upon success of the next phase of preclinical work, ValiRx anticipates beginning its regulatory filings to start Phase I testing in the fourth quarter.

• Vical Inc., of San Diego, received $2.1 million from Tokyo-based AnGes MG Inc. for costs associated with the ongoing Phase III melanoma trial of Allovectin-7. In a 2006 deal, AnGes agreed to fund the trial up to $22.6 million in exchange for Asian marketing rights. (See BioWorld Today, May 31, 2006.)

• VIRxSYS Corp., of Gaithersburg, Md., signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute focused on atherosclerosis. One of the major aims of the research is to create ways of increasing the level of HDL cholesterol in the bloodstream using VIRxSYS's spliceosome-mediated RNA trans-splicing (SMaRT) technology. The CRADA is a transition of an agreement with Raleigh, N.C.-based Intronn Corp., which was acquired by VIRxSYS in a September deal. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 24, 2007.)