• Albany Molecular Research Inc., of Albany, N.Y., and its wholly owned subsidiary, AMR Technology Inc., said they reached a settlement regarding U.S. patent infringement litigations involving Allegra and Allegra D-12 with Paris-based Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc., Bridgewater, N.J.,-based Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, Fairfield, N.J.-based Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and Montvale, N.J.-based Barr Laboratories Inc. As part of the settlement, AMRI entered an amendment to its licensing agreement to allow Sanofi-Aventis to sublicense patents related to both products to Teva and Barr in exchange for an up-front fee of $10 million. Sanofi also will provide royalties to AMRI on the sale of products containing fexofenadine hydrochloride (the active ingredient in Allegra) and products containing fexofenadine hydrochloride and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (Allegra D-12) by Teva and Barr through 2015, along with additional considerations. AMRI will continue to receive royalties on U.S. sales of products containing Allegra, Allegra D-12 and authorized generics for the remaining term of the patents.

• Ambrilia Biopharma Inc., of Montreal, said it plans to significantly reduce its activities in France to concentrate activities in its Montreal headquarters and further preserve cash into 2009. The firm is following the process defined by the French employment laws for its eight permanent employees based there.

• Bavarian Nordic A/S, of Kvistgard, Denmark, triggered a $25 million milestone payment from the U.S. government by submitting safety data from a Phase II trial of smallpox vaccine Imvamune in HIV-infected patients. The biotech has invoiced the U.S. government for a total of $125 million under its contract to manufacture and deliver 20 million doses of Imvamune. Delivery of product is expected to begin in 2009. (See BioWorld Today, April 17, 2007.)

• Introgen Therapeutics Inc., of Austin, Texas, said it received notice from the Nasdaq Hearings Panel that the company's stock was transferred from the Nasdaq Global Market to the Nasdaq Capital Market. Its shares will continue to be listed provided that the company can demonstrate compliance with all listing requirements by March 3, 2009.

• KAI Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, reported preclinical results demonstrating that KAI-1678 was effective in reversing pain (hyperalgesia and allodynia) in multiple models and also was shown to reverse pain more effectively than gabapentin. Those data were presented at the Neuroscience 2008 meeting in Washington. KAI-1678, an isozyme-selective, small-peptide inhibitor of the epsilon protein kinase C pathway, is set to enter Phase IIa testing by the end of this year.

• Med Discovery SA, of Geneva, and Laborium Biopharma, of Montreal, a subsidiary of Validapro Biosciences Inc., agreed to partner on the development and optimization of protein bioprocess production and scale-up. The first project is Med Discovery's kallikrein inhibitor MDPK67b, a recombinant therapeutic protein designed to regulate biological pathways involved in prostate cancer. Terms were not disclosed.

• Paion AG, of Aachen, Germany, completed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 81-patient Phase I trial of CNS 7056, a short-acting sedative and anaesthetic acquired through Paion's buy-out of CeNeS Pharmaceutical plc earlier this year. No serious adverse events were reported. Additional data will be reported in early 2009. (See BioWorld Today, April 11, 2008.)

• PDL BioPharma Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., said its board set Dec. 3 as the record date for the spin-off of its biotech operations. The spin-off firm, Facet Biotech, will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol "FACT." (See BioWorld Today, April 14, 2008.)

• PharmAthene Inc., of Annapolis, Md., signed an agreement with Medison Pharma Ltd., of Petach Tikva, Israel, to commercialize its biodefense products in Israel. Under the terms of the exclusive, multiyear deal, Medison agreed to commercialize products from PharmAthene's biodefense portfolio and will be responsible for overseeing regulatory approval, marketing and distribution activities for those products in Israel. PharmAthene will handle all manufacturing. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Prana Biotechnology Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, said preclinical data published in the Annals of Neurology showed mice treated with a predecessor of Prana's PBT2 drug prior to receiving the anesthetic gas isoflurane had significantly lower levels of the enzyme that leads to amyloid-beta production. Phase II data previously showed that PBT2 improved executive function, an important aspect of cognitive performance, in early Alzheimer's disease and reduced Abeta levels.

• Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc., of East Brunswick, N.J., said President and CEO Christopher Clement resigned his position, by mutual agreement with the board. Former senior vice president of commercial operations, Paul Hamelin, will take over as president. The board also appointed a biologics license application oversight committee to support gout drug pegloticase, which was submitted for FDA review earlier this fall. Shares of Savient (NASDAQ:SVNT) fell 70 cents, or 16 percent, to close at $3.69 Wednesday.

• Viral Genetics Inc., of San Marino, Calif., said it completed its acquisition of its subsidiary V-Clip Pharmaceuticals Inc., obtaining the remaining 56 percent of the company it did not already own. The deal provides Viral Genetics' with V-Clip's exclusive worldwide rights to patent applications developed at the University of Colorado for ongoing work in HIV/AIDS and other immune-based diseases.