• Ampio Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Greenwood Village, Colo., has received approval for a new stock trading symbol, AMPE, effective Wednesday. The symbol change follows the March 24 change in the company's corporate name from Chay Enterprises Inc. to Ampio. The company's common stock will continue trading, uninterrupted, on the over-the-counter bulletin board.

• Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, extended its all-cash tender offer for $52 per share for all outstanding shares of common stock of OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Melville, N.Y., to April 23. The tender offer was previously set to expire at midnight Wednesday. As of the close of trading March 30, 37,858 shares of OSI had been tendered. Astellas also has entered into a confidentiality agreement with OSI, under which OSI will provide Astellas with access to certain non-public information. (See BioWorld Today, March 2, 2010.)

• Cangene Corp., of Toronto, has signed a no-cost modification to extend its botulism antitoxin contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to allow the company additional time to pursue FDA licensure, a requirement under the contract. The modified contract also extends from May 2011 to May 2013 the product delivery schedule to better align it with licensure activities. Cangene has delivered about half of the contracted 200,000 doses to date.

• Eisai Europe Ltd., of London, has submitted a marketing authorization application to the European Medicines Agency for approval of eribulin mesylate, also known as E7389, for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Eribulin mesylate, a nontaxane microtubule dynamics inhibitor, is an investigational chemical compound discovered and developed by Eisai. Regulatory applications for eribulin mesylate also have been submitted in the U.S. and Japan.

• International Stem Cell Corp., of Oceanside, Calif., said that its wholly owned subsidiary, Lifeline Cell Technology signed a distribution agreement with Veritas Corp., of Tokyo, to distribute its human cell culture products throughout Japan. Lifeline specializes in the development, manufacture and distribution of products to culture human cells for the study of human disease, including products to culture primary human cells and human stem cells.

• Kyto Biopharma Inc., of West Palm Beach, Fla., entered a deal with Targeted Payload Therapeutics Inc., a U.S. company recently formed to develop monoclonal antibodies and oligonucleotide-targeting therapeutics for cancer and ophthalmic diseases. Kyto provided seed funding to TPT through a loan, with funds to be reimbursed upon TPT's completion of a private placement offering. Kyto entered a secondary agreement with TPT, in which it will obtain a percentage ownership of TPT, as well as a commitment that TPT will spend up to $2 million for R&D work on Kyto's lead product.

• Medivation Inc., of San Francisco, said it is reducing its work force by 20 percent, or 23 employees, and also cutting operating costs to focus its resources on prioritized dimebon trials and the continued development of MDV3100. Medivation said its top priority was further analysis of the CONNECTION data to better understand the impact on the development of dimebon for Alzheimer's and Huntington diseases. Medivation's shares plunged more than 67 percent earlier this month after its Phase III trials of dimebon in Alzheimer's disease missed all of the study's stated goals. (See BioWorld Today, March 4, 2010.)

• Novogen Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, has entered into new executive service agreements with its seven most senior executives, which the firm said brings its executives into full compliance with the recent amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 on termination payments and ASX listing rules.

• Phosphagenics Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, entered a deal with Novartis Animal Health, a division of Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis AG, to develop its transdermal insulin delivery system to treat diabetes in companion animals. Financial terms were not disclosed, though Phosphagenics will receive an initial payment and be eligible for milestones and royalties.

• Siena Biotech SpA, of Siena, Italy, said Basel, Switzerland-based Roche AG will exercise its option early to become the lead party for further development, manufacture and commercialization of certain selected molecules for treating Alzheimer's disease. Under the terms of the 2007 collaboration, Siena received an undisclosed option exercise fee and is eligible for further milestone payments, plus royalties on any product sales. Siena also retained rights for the further development of commonly discovered compounds for orphan indications.

• Signum Biosciences Inc., of Monmouth Junction, N.J., received a $270,000 grant from the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation to evaluate small-molecule, orally delivered protein phosphatase 2a-modulatory compounds as disease-modifying therapeutics for AD. The grant will fund work with rodent Alzheimer's models to expand upon pilot studies with Signum's lipid signal transduction modulators and establish dosing levels and biomarker endpoints.

• VIA Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Francisco, is reducing its work force by 63 percent to a core R&D team of six employees to focus resources on pipeline development. The reduction affects primarily business development and finance personnel. The company also drew down $1.25 million from a $3 million secured note and warrant purchase agreement with its principal stockholder. Those moves are intended to provide VIA additional time to explore strategic options such as partnerships or additional financings. The company's pipeline includes VIA-2291, a Phase III-ready 5-LO inhibitor for atherosclerosis, and VIA-3196, an investigational new drug application-ready thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist for the control of cholesterol, triglyceride levels and potential in insulin sensitization/diabetes. Shares of VIA (PinkSheets:VIAP) gained 3 cents, or 12.8 percent, to close Wednesday at 22 cents.

• Vivus Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., said it has terminated its 2004 development and commercialization agreement with FemPharm Pty Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Acrux Ltd., for Luramist, a metered-dose transdermal application of testosterone for women. Vivus said it was returning the rights to Luramist to FemPharm and would now focus its efforts on developing Qnexa for obesity and avanafil for erectile dysfunction. The firm said the decision to terminate the agreement was made in view of the significant long-term safety requirements for the approval of testosterone products in women.

• Zirus Inc., of Buford, Ga., and the Emory Institute of Drug Discovery, of Atlanta, have entered a collaboration and research agreement to develop compounds to treat infectious disease using Zirus' method for identifying genes and gene products in host cells.