• Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and Koken Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, said Alnylam has granted Koken a nonexclusive worldwide license to manufacture and provide RNAi research products and services under the Kreutzer-Limmer patent family. The patent family covers fundamental aspects of the structure and uses of RNAi products, including small interfering RNAs and their use to mediate RNAi in mammalian cells, and of RNAi-related mechanisms. Financial details were not disclosed.

• Champions Biotechnology Inc., of Baltimore, established an exclusive licensing agreement with Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd. for the development and commercialization of TAR-1, a single-chain antibody fragment in preclinical development that may have an advantage in treating cancer patients because of its high specificity and affinity to binding mutant p53 protein. Champions has obtained the worldwide rights to TAR-1 and is responsible for the further development. Financial details were not disclosed.

• GeneNews Ltd., of Toronto, entered an agreement allowing Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, select access to research from its osteoarthritis genomic biomarker program. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• International Stem Cell Corp., of Oceanside, Calif., and Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York said they have shown that immature, unfertilized human eggs can be used to create "parthenotes" from which human parthenogenetic stem cell lines may be derived. The discovery increases the opportunity for ISCO to create new stem cell lines and hastens the time when "banks" of stem cells that match a patient's immune system may be available, the company said.

• PharmaGap Inc., of Otawa, Ontario, reported positive results from a 5-dose in vitro anticancer screen of PharmaGap drug GAP-107B8. The results confirmed results announced in August from the single-dose study and further validate GAP-107B8 as an active pharmaceutical ingredient against a wide range of cancers, the company said. The company will be focusing its immediate development program on ovarian cancer and melanoma. GAP-107B8 is a peptide protein kinase inhibitor designed to specifically target molecular signaling pathways in cancer cells.

• QLT Inc.,of Vancouver, British Columbia, has authorized the repurchase of up to 5 percent of its outstanding common shares over the next 12 months, pending required approvals. The price will be the market price of the shares at the time of acquisition. QLT will make no purchases other than open-market purchases.

• Scynexis Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., received a payment from Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., for achieving a preclinical milestone resulting from a collaboration to discover and develop novel oncology agents. Neither the amount of the milestone nor details of the agent were disclosed.

• Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, has received its third purchase order for its H1N1 vaccine, PANFLU.1, from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for the national stockpiling plan. Sinovac is required to produce an additional 5.19 million doses of PANFLU.1 (15 mcg/0.5 ml) and to complete delivery of 2.89 million doses by the end of this year and supply the remaining 2.3 million doses for the central government stockpiling. Financial details were not disclosed.

• Telormedix, of Bioggio, Switzerland, appointed Johanna Holldack as its new CEO. Holldack was previously CEO of Borean Pharma, and before that was with MediGene AG, the former Chiron Corp., and head of clinical research and development at German Behringwerke AG.

• Vivalis, of Nantes, France, renewed the rights granted to Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis Group to test the EB66 cell line, derived from duck embryonic stem cells, for the production of monoclonal antibodies, and also extended it to include the production of recombinant proteins. Financial terms were not disclosed.