• Adeona Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich., saw its stock skyrocket 279 percent Tuesday after its board approved a $1 million share repurchase program. The company was previously known as Pipex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and focuses on diseases associated with zinc deficiency and copper toxicity. Adeona reported $5.8 million in cash at the end of 2008, but spent only $600,000 in the first quarter of 2009 and said it hopes the repurchase will improve its stock price, provide liquidity and reduce the company's 21 million outstanding shares. Shares of Adeona (AMEX:AEN) rose 53 cents to close at 72 cents on Tuesday.

• AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., published data in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences regarding its creation of a preclinical cancer model in which primary human breast tissue engineered to express oncogenes was introduced into mice to create invasive tumors. The company said the approach offers an improvement over xenograft models. AVEO's lead drug, AV-951, is a triple VEGFR inhibitor in Phase II trials for renal cancer.

• EnVivo Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., entered an agreement with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp., of Osaka, Japan, for development and commercialization of lead candidate EVP-6124 in Japan and several other Asian countries. EVP-6124, an alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist, is in development for cognition enhancement in patients with Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, and clinical studies are ongoing. Under the terms, Mitsubishi has rights to the drug and other alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and other markets. Mitsubishi plans to start Phase I trials in 2010. EnVivo expects to receive an initial license payment and is eligible for clinical and regulatory milestones, as well as commercial milestones, plus royalties on EVP-6124 sales. Specific terms were not disclosed.

• Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., said it received a Paragraph IV Certification Notice Letter advising that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Petach Tikva, Israel, submitted an abbreviated new drug application to the FDA for a generic version on Atripla (efavirenz-emtricitabine-tenofovir disoproxil fumarate). Gilead has 45 days to commence a patent infringement lawsuit against Teva, which would stay the FDA's decision 30 months or until a court decision is reached.

• ImmuneRegen BioSciences Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz., formed a collaboration with the University of Rochester Medical School in New York to evaluate the ability of adult stem cell product Homspera to mitigate radiation exposure and associated complications including pulmonary fibrosis. Homspera also is under preclinical evaluation for wound healing applications.

• IntelGenx Corp., of Saint Laurent, Quebec, and Cary Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Great Falls, Va., filed a new drug application with the FDA for CPI-300, a controlled-release formulation of a widely prescribed antidepressant that uses IntelGenx's oral drug delivery technology. The NDA was submitted under the 505(b)(2) pathway based on a bioequivalence study.

• Renovo Group plc, of Manchester, UK, confirmed rumors that an unsolicited preliminary nonbinding "approach" has been made toward acquiring the company. The speculation has sent shares rising dramatically in recent days, although the stock (LSX:RNVO) settled Tuesday, dropping 1 percent to close at 30 pence. The company said only that the discussions are at an early stage and that it would make further comments in due course. The company is best known for developing the scar treatment Juvista.

• Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., and Danisco BioActives, of Madison, Wis., said they signed a partnering agreement to develop a biologic candidate aimed at preventing necrotizing enterocolitis, a gastrointestinal disorder in infants that affects very low birth weight premature infants. Under the terms, the companies will collaborate to develop STP-206, which is composed of live bacteria, with Sigma-Tau managing clinical and regulatory development. Clinical trials are set to start later this year. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Theravance Inc., of South San Francisco, said the FDA accepted for filing its new drug application for telavancin, a once-daily injectable antibiotic, in hospital-acquired pneumonia caused by Gram-positive bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The company, which filed the NDA in January, expects a PDUFA date of Nov. 26. The NDA filing triggers a milestone payment of $10 million from partner Astellas Pharma Inc., of Deerfield, Ill. The FDA also is reviewing an earlier NDA filing for telavancin in complicated skin and skin structure infections. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 28, 2009.)

• Transgenomic Inc., of Omaha, Neb., said it completed a licensing option with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston with regard to a method known as Cold-CR, a variation of the standard PCR technology that has shown effectiveness in enriching mutations in cancer-related genes in samples where DNA sequencing cannot detect very low concentrations of somatic DNA mutation. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• TransMolecular Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., appointed Robert Radie as president and CEO. Radie previously served as a full-time business development consultant for TransMolecular and held senior positions at Prestwick Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Morphotek Inc. (now a subsidiary of Eisai Corp.). Michael Egan, who formerly held the reins at TransMolecular, was named vice chairman of the board of directors. The changes reflect a focus on partnering TM601, a synthetic peptide poised for Phase III in brain cancer.

• XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, said an independent auditor reviewing its financial statements considered the firm a going concern. As of Dec. 31, 2008, XTL had cash, equivalents and short-term bank deposits totaling $2.9 million.