• AEterna Zentaris Inc., of Quebec City, said it received a letter from Nasdaq saying that the minimum closing bid price of its common shares had fallen below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. The company has until July 20 to regain compliance.

• Alizé Pharma, of Lyon, France, said subsidiary Alizé Pharma SAS has entered into a research collaboration and license option agreement with Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, regarding Alizé Pharma's AZP-01 program focused on the development of unacylated ghrelin agonists for the treatment of Type II diabetes. Lilly will pay an undisclosed up-front fee and both companies will collaborate on Alizé's AZP-01 project. In return, Lilly will be granted an exclusive option to license the program according to predefined terms. Other terms were not disclosed. The AZP-01 program aims at developing UAG agonists as a new potential therapeutic class for the treatment of Type II diabetes.

• Cytori Therapeutics, of San Diego, said a preclinical fat grafting study has been published in the February 2010 issue of the Annals of Plastic Surgery. The article examined the science behind cell-enriched autologous fat grafting and its application to cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. The results demonstrated a doubling in graft retention in cell-enriched grafts and provided insight into the mechanisms behind the improvement.

• Dragon Pharmaceutical Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said Chairman and CEO Yanlin Han proposed to acquire the company for 80 cents per share, a 33 percent premium to the stock's recent closing price. Dragon had 67 million shares outstanding as of Nov. 13, 2009, of which Han owned 39 percent, resulting in a proposed purchase price of about $32 million. Dragon makes antibiotics. Its stock (OTC BB:DRUG) jumped 14 cents, or 23 percent, to close at 74 cents on Monday.

• Prolor Biotech Inc., of Nes-Ziona, Israel, said results of a comparative study showed that IFN-beta-CTP, a longer-acting version of the multiple sclerosis drug interferon beta, had 13 times prolonged durability and 55 times prolonged overall drug exposure in primates over commercially available interferon beta. The firm said that IFN-beta-CTP also demonstrated strong biological potency as measured by several well validated biomarkers, including antiviral activity and changes in neopterin, and 2'-5' oligo A synthetase.

• Theratechnologies Inc., of Montreal, said it was notified that, due to an administrative delay, the FDA plans to reschedule its Feb. 24 meeting of its Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee to review the new drug application for tesamorelin. Theratechnologies said the FDA informed the company that the delay was entirely procedural and was not related to the tesamorelin NDA, which was submitted May 2009. Theratechnologies is seeking approval of tesamorelin, an analogue of the growth hormone-releasing factor, as a treatment for excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act action date is March 29. (See BioWorld Today, June 2, 2009.)

• Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Ky., received more than $412,000 in Small Business Innovation Research funding: $312,628 from the National Cancer Institute and $100,000 in matching funds from the Kentucky economic development office. Transposagen is developing a rat model of human colorectal cancer.

• Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., which has filed for bankruptcy, told investors that it does not believe there will be any value for the company's common stock "even under the most optimistic of scenarios" despite recent high trading. The firm said it does not believe all claims against the company will be settled, leaving nothing for investors. Vion filed for bankruptcy Dec. 17, 2009, listing assets at $14.6 million and liabilities of $62.8 million.