• Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., said it has completed its acquisition of USB Corp., of Cleveland, and USB stockholders have received approximately $75 million in cash. USB markets a line of molecular biology and biochemical reagent products, and the purchase will allow Affymetrix to accelerate development and commercialization of new genetic analysis solutions.

• Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Mateo, Calif., has entered into manufacturing agreements with Albemarle Corp. and Patheon Inc. The agreements provide for the large-scale clinical production of Varespladib (A-002), which is expected to be necessary in preparation for Anthera's Phase III clinical trials and planned new drug application submission to the FDA. Varespladib is an oral drug candidate for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Albemarle will be responsible for process optimization and manufacturing, and Patheon will be responsible for finished tablet production. The agreement also provides an option for the commercial production of Varespladib in the future. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Cell Signaling Technology Inc., of Danvers, Mass., entered an assay development partnership deal with custom automation and laboratory instrumentation company TTP LabTech Ltd. Under the deal, CST will develop and validate antibodies on TTPLT's Acumen Explorer/X3 microplate cytometric platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• CombiMatrix Corp., of Mukilteo, Wash., and Clarient Inc., of Aliso Viejo, Calif., have established a partnership to market and sell a genomics-based cancer test called HemeScan related to the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and other cancers. The test will be marketed by Clarient to pathologists, oncologists and patients.

• Cytopia Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, said preclinical studies showed that its JAK2 inhibitor, CYT387, blocked the overproduction of red blood cells in cell samples from patients with polycythemia vera, a type of myeloproliferative disorder.

• Egenix Inc., of Millbrook, N.Y., has obtained a field-exclusive license under patent rights from Harvard University covering technologies related to cancer therapy and prognostic testing. The licensed technologies comprise small-molecule inhibitors of translation initiation, a new paradigm in target-specific, noncytotoxic anticancer therapy, and the use of translation initiation-specific biomarkers to assess tumor sensitivity to anticancer therapy with that novel class of anticancer drugs. No financial terms were disclosed.

• The FDA said a safety review of Shirley, N.Y.-based Luitpold Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Injectafer (ferric carboxymaltose) raised significant safety concerns due to a safety signal for a mortality risk associated with the drug. There were 10 deaths in Injectafer-treated patients compared with one death in the control patients in the clinical trials reviewed, the agency said in documents posted to its website. Medical reviewers said five of the six deaths among Injectafer-treated patients in randomized trials occurred in studies using the proposed first dose of 1,000 mg. Luitpold, a subsidiary of Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo Co., is seeking to market the drug in the U.S. as a treatment for iron deficiency anemia in postpartum patients or patients with heavy uterine bleeding. The proposed market population includes patients who otherwise might receive oral iron as a treatment option. The FDA's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee at a meeting Friday in Silver Spring, Md., will debate whether Injectafer should be approved in the U.S.

• Hologic Inc., of Bedford, Mass., said its board of directors has approved a two-for-one stock split to be effected in the form of a stock dividend, subject to stockholder approval, to increase from 300 million to 750 million the number of shares of common stock the company has the authority to issue.

• ImaSight Inc., of Ottawa, Quebec, has entered into a nonbinding letter of intent with Liponex, of Gatineau, Quebec, for a business combination in which shareholders of ImaSight will own approximately 65 percent of the combined company. Liponex would acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of ImaSight through a share purchase or other transaction. John Brooks, CEO of ImaSight, would become CEO of the combined company. The transaction is expected to be completed in April.

• ImClone Systems Inc., of New York, reported global net sales of Erbitux totaling $371 million for the fourth quarter, an increase of 27 percent over the fourth quarter of 2006 and a 48 percent quarter-over-quarter increase. U.S. sales were $185 million. Erbitux is partnered with New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck KGaA, and ImClone receives royalties on product sales. The company reported total revenues for the quarter ending Dec. 31 of $151.4 million, with $89.8 million of that coming from Erbitux royalties. ImClone posted a net loss of $19.9 million, or 23 cents per share, for the quarter on a GAAP basis, and a net income of $36.4 million, or 41 cents per share, on a non-GAAP basis. As of Dec. 31, the firm had a cash position of $1 billion. Shares of ImClone (NASDAQ:IMCL) closed at $43.47 Thursday, up $1.50.

• Ipsen SA, of Paris, said the FDA accepted for review the biologics license application for Dysport (botulinum neurotoxin Type A complex) in cervical dystonia. Dysport is marketed outside the U.S. for medical and aesthetic neuromuscular purposes. Separately, Ipsen's partner for the U.S. aesthetic market, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., said the FDA rejected its BLA filing for the drug (branded for aesthetics as Reloxin). The agency said the filing was incomplete, and Medicis and Ipsen plan to work with the agency to address any concerns.

• Laureate Pharma Inc., of Princeton, N.J., has entered into a cGMP contract manufacturing agreement with Arius Research Inc., of Toronto. Laureate will produce Arius' IgG1 humanized antibody. ARIUS' Trop-2 antibody program targets a marker that has been linked to aggressive cancers including pancreatic, colon, breast and prostate cancer.

• Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and Harvard Medical School's Office of Technology Development has entered into a research collaboration in the area of protein homeostasis. Harvard has granted Millennium a license to certain inventions and the two institutions will jointly advance the program in that cancer biology area over several years. Financial terms were not disclosed. Research has shown various pathways that regulate cellular protein homeostasis are linked to the pathologic properties of a broad range of cancers. The initial agreement focuses on advancing knowledge in that field over three years.

• OpGen Inc., of Madison, Wis., said it has appointed Noel Doheny as its CEO and to its board of directors. He recently served as senior vice president of molecular diagnostics at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Affymetrix Inc. Doheny also held leadership roles at Medfield, Mass.-based Ciba-Corning, now Siemens, Waltham, Mass.-based Biostar, now part of Inverness Medical Innovations Inc., and Qiagen NV, of Venlo, the Netherlands.

• Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., said it received a letter Jan. 28 from Nasdaq advising that its common stock bid price has closed below the required minimum $1 per share for the past 30 days. The firm has until July 28 to regain compliance.

• PsychoGenics Inc., of Tarrytown, N.J., has entered into an additional drug discovery agreement with Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, for Lilly to supply pre-candidate compounds that PsychoGenics will evaluate for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. If Lilly develops clinical candidates, PsychoGenics would receive research and milestone payments, and royalties. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Somaxon Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, submitted a new drug application for Silenor (doxepin hydrochloride) in insomnia. The NDA was filed under the 505(b)(2) section, which allows Somaxon to rely on published reports or the FDA's findings of safety and efficacy for previously approved formulations of doxepin hydrochloride, and includes data from four Phase III trials of Silenor in insomnia patients. The company anticipates FDA acceptance of the application for review within 60 days and an agency action letter within 10 months.

• Syngenta AG, of Basel, Switzerland, has entered into an agreement with Athenix Corp., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., for the discovery of novel corn insect and soybean cyst nematode-resistance genes. The agreement allows Syngenta access to gene leads from which to develop advanced-generation corn and soybean products. Athenix will screen its microbial strain collection to identify for initial development gene leads in the targeted areas of corn rootworm, European corn borer, broad lepidopteran and soybean cyst nematode control. Syngenta would conduct further development, and will have exclusive global ownership on any corn and soybean transformation products developed, excluding Australia and New Zealand. Athenix may further license gene leads it generates in the discovery process.