• Altea Therapeutics Corp., of Atlanta, entered a partnership with KAI Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, for the preclinical and clinical development of certain KAI peptides using Altea's PassPort transdermal delivery system. Altea also granted KAI an option to receive a worldwide technology license for further development and commercialization of those transdermal products, which would make Altea eligible for license payments, milestones and royalties. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

• BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Birmingham, Ala., said partner Shionogi & Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, received marketing and manufacturing approval for intravenous peramivir to treat patients with influenza in Japan, triggering a third and final regulatory milestone payment of $7 million to BioCryst. Under the companies' 2007 license agreement, BioCryst may receive future commercial event milestone payments of up to $95 million. Shionogi intends to commercially launch the drug under the brand Rapiacta, pending the product's National Health Insurance price listing. (See BioWorld Today, March 7, 2007.)

• CrystalGenomics Inc., of Seoul, South Korea, and AstraZeneca plc, of London, entered a research collaboration to discover and develop an anti-infective for use as a potential antibacterial agent. Under the terms of the agreement, CrystalGenomics will receive research funding from AstraZeneca for two years and will be eligible for future milestones and royalty payments associated with development and commercialization of a drug candidate. Financial terms were not disclosed. The goal of the collaboration is to generate optimized lead compounds against a pre-agreed bacterial target.

• Medicure Inc., of Winnipeg, Manitoba, retained Bloom Burton & Co. to assist in the evaluation of financial alternatives and fundraising options and retained Beal Advisors LLC to assist in the partnership, license or sale of cardiovascular drug Aggrastat (tirofiban HCl). The company anticipates the process will take several months, and there are no assurances that any transaction will be completed. As of Aug. 31, 2009, Medicure had C$938,467 (US$908,896) in cash.

• Movetis, of Turnhout, Belgium, said Belgian tax authorities granted the company a positive ruling enabling it to benefit from the patent income deduction regime and, thus, from a reduced tax rate for the IP-related Resolor (prucalopride) revenues. The patent income deduction will apply to a significant part of the Resolor sales generated in the countries where Movetis will market the drug directly, as well as to all royalties to be obtained from partners, the firm said.

• Octapharma AG, of Achen, Switzerland, received orphan drug exclusivity approval for wilate from the FDA. The approval was granted for the use of wilate for the treatment of spontaneous or trauma-induced bleeding episodes in patients with severe von Willebrand disease as well as in patients with mild or moderate VWD in whom the use of desmopressin is known or suspected to be ineffective or contraindicated. Last month, wilate received FDA approval for the treatment of spontaneous and trauma-induced bleeding episodes in patients with severe VWD as well as patients with mild or moderate VWD in whom the use of desmopressin is known or suspected to be ineffective or contraindicated.

• Oxygen Biotherapeutics Inc., of Durham, N.C., said the company's common stock will begin trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market with the opening of trading Jan. 15. The shares will continue to trade under the symbol "OXBT."

• Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc., of Carmiel, Israel, said the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Agency has recommended that the European Commission grant orphan drug designation to taliglucerase alfa, a plant cell-expressed recombinant form of glucocerebrosidase for the treatment of Gaucher's disease. Taliglucerase alfa already had gained orphan drug designation in the U.S., where it also has fast-track status. The company in November 2009 granted Pfizer Inc., of New York, exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize taliglucerase alfa for the treatment of Gaucher's disease, except for Israel, where Protalix retains the rights.

• Sirnaomics Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., said it has been granted licensing rights by the University of Maryland Medical School to a patent covering the use of Histidine-Lysine polymer for wound healing and ocular diseases siRNA therapeutics.

• Targeted Genetics Corp., of Seattle, said it will delist from Nasdaq, explaining that the expense and management attention required outweighed the benefits. The firm said its limited resources may be more productively used to support efforts to monetize assets and other efforts. Targeted Genetics said it notified Nasdaq that it does not plan to pursue a reverse stock split as a means to regain compliance with the $1 per share minimum bid price requirement and therefore expected trading of shares to be suspended on Jan. 15, with delisting occurring by Feb. 1. Following the delisting, Targeted Genetics said it anticipated that its common stock will be quoted on the Pink Sheets service for over-the-counter securities.