• BioAlliance Pharma SA, of Paris, said in vivo results for its AMEP plasmid demonstrated efficacy as an anti-invasive cancer therapy when administered intramuscularly. AMEP prompted a 53 percent reduction in tumor growth in a melanoma model. Data were presented at the American Society of Gene Therapy meeting in Boston.

• Cavit Sciences Inc., of Boca Raton, Fla., said it recently completed an asset purchase agreement with Alternecare Health Products Inc., also of Boca Raton. Alternecare combines rapid home diagnostics with therapeutic nutraceutical-based solutions. Under the terms, Cavit will gain the consulting services of Ismael Gonzalez, Alternecare's president. Cavit has three developed supplement lines and is developing treatments and prevention for cancer, viral infections, opportunistic infections, related diseases and the immune system.

• CuraGen Corp., of Branford, Conn., said it regained compliance with the $1 per share minimum listing price requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Market.

• Gen-Probe Inc., of San Diego, said it launched in Europe its Aptima HPV Assay, a highly specific molecular diagnostic test to detect high-risk strains of the human papillomavirus. The APTIMA HPV Assay, an amplified nucleic acid test that detects 14 high-risk HPV types associated with cervical cancer, has been CE marked and currently is available for sale in 13 European Union countries. It is manufactured by Gen-Probe subsidiary Molecular Light Technology, of Cardiff, Wales.

• Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., and Navitas Assets LLC, of Laramie, Wyo., entered an agreement under which Gilead has acquired all of Navitas' assets related to its cicletanine business. Under the terms, Gilead will pay Navitas an up-front payment, plus contingent payments on future net sales. Navitas also could earn additional payments based upon the achievement of development and regulatory milestones. In exchange, Gilead gets exclusive rights to regulatory data and filings for development of cicletanine as a monotherapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension and for other indications in the U.S. Financial terms were not disclosed. Cicletanine is an oral, once-daily agent approved in some European countries for the treatment of hypertension. The compound is thought to act via enhanced coupling of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and has been evaluated in three small pulmonary hypertension studies in Europe.

• Histogenics Corp., of Waltham, Mass., said it named F. Ken Andrews president and CEO. Andrews is a former vice president of marketing and sales of the tissue repair division of Genzyme Corp. Histogenics, a cartilage regeneration company is developing the NeoCart neocartilage implant, which has shown promise in clinical trials as a long-lasting treatment for knee joint repair.

• Integrated Genomics Inc., of Chicago, and TMO Renewables Ltd., of Guildford, UK, agreed to extend their collaboration on the discovery of cellulosic bioethanol production systems. The initial targets of the collaboration are two of IG's membrane transport proteins that will be evaluated in TMO's thermophilic strains.

• Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said an FDA panel voted unanimously Friday that its drug Promacta (eltrombopag) should be approved as a short-term treatment for chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, an autoimmune disorder characterized by autoantibody-induced platelet destruction and reduced platelet production, leading to a chronically low peripheral blood count. Ligand's shares (NASDAQ:LGND) soared 49.4 percent Friday, or $1.16, to close at $3.51. The firm's stock had plummeted 36 percent earlier in the week after FDA drug reviewers said the drug was no more effective than placebo in treating ITP. The FDA is set to make a decision by June 19 on whether to approve Promacta. Ligand partnered with London-based GlaxoSmithKline plc on the drug. (See BioWorld Today, May 30, 2008.)

• Locus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Blue Bell, Pa., said it entered research collaborations with The Cancer Therapy & Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, and with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Those collaborations center on the Locus p38 inhibitor portfolio of drug development candidates and will build upon an existing research relationship with CTRC, which focuses on LP-261, Locus' lead clinical candidate in Phase 1.

• Merck KGaA, of Darmstadt, Germany, received a positive opinion from the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) to broaden the use of Erbitux (cetuximab) to include patients with KRAS wild-type tumors. The recommendation specifically calls for the drug's use as a first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-expressing, KRAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer in combination with chemotherapy and as a single agent in patients who have failed oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based therapy and who are intolerant to irinotecan. A final decision is expected shortly from the European Commission. Merck licensed rights to Erbitux outside the U.S. and Canada from New York-based ImClone Systems Inc.

• Oncolytics Biotech Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, said preclinical data showed that mesothelioma cells are sensitive to and support replication of reoviruses. Additional data indicated that normal T cells pre-loaded with reovirus localized to lymph nodes, spleen and liver and delivered the virus to sites of metastatic disease. Those data were presented at the American Society of Gene Therapy meeting in Boston.

• PDL BioPharma Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., said L. Patrick Gage resigned as director due to "differences of opinion" among the board members over the prioritization of PDL's objectives and will no longer serve as interim CEO. The company said another board member, Karen A. Dawes, resigned for personal reasons. The remaining three members - Brad Goodwin, Joseph Klein III and Laurence Korn - will constitute an office of the chair of the board and will head the firm until a new CEO is identified. PDL, which decided earlier this year not to put itself up for sale, reported in April plans to spin off its biotech assets into a separate publicly traded entity apart from its antibody humanization royalty assets and to capitalize the new spin-off firm with about $375 million in cash. The company intends to retain rights to the antibody humanization royalty revenues and to distribute that income to stockholders, net of any operating expenses, debt services and income taxes, while continuing to evaluate opportunities to sell or securitize all or part of that business. (See BioWorld Today, April 14, 2008.)

• Pharmacopeia, of Princeton, N.J., said it will reduce its work force by about 15 percent as part of a plan to allocate a greater share of its resources toward clinical later-stage discovery programs. The work force reductions will be achieved through attrition and termination of positions. Other expenses also will be decreased through improved operational efficiencies and increased financial discipline. The company's annual operating expenditures are expected to decrease by at least $10 million in 2009. The company's programs include PS433540 (DARA), which recently had positive Phase IIa results. In the second quarter, Pharmacopeia expects to record a charge of approximately $800,000 in connection with the severance provided to employees directly affected by the reduction in staffing. (See BioWorld Today, May 19, 2008.)

• Pharmacyclics Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., regained compliance with the Nasdaq $1 minimum share price rule and will continue being listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

• PreMD Inc., of Toronto, said it was notified by the American Stock Exchange that it will not continue to support PreMD's plan for regaining compliance with the continued listing standards and that it intends to delist the company's common stock from the exchange. PreMD's management said that delisting will not affect the company's listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The determination by the staff of Amex to initiate the delisting of the common stock from Amex is based on the company's failure to meet several of the exchange's conditions for continued listing, including insufficient stockholder's equity, ongoing losses and low share price.

• Progen Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia, said data showed that compounds in its preclinical cancer epigenetics program functionally inhibited the activity of LSD-1, a new epigenetic cancer target which, if inhibited, may activate genes that protect against tumor development. The company said in vitro testing showed that inhibiting LSD-1 with this class of compounds can reactivate genes that normally suppress cancer and are deactivated in cancer-triggering processes. Progen is extending the studies to animal cancer models to determine if it can inhibit the growth of tumors. The data are being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Epigenetics Meeting in Boston.