• AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said it received a $5 million milestone payment from Biogen Idec International GmbH, a subsidiary of Biogen Idec Inc., also of Cambridge, for the selection of the first humanized antibody development candidate from its ErbB3 program.
• Hunt Biosciences AS, of Levanger, Norway, signed a collaboration agreement with Tissue Solutions Ltd., of Clydebank, Scotland, a supplier of biological samples for the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries. The collaboration aims to promote the value of the Hunt Study, which for the past 25 years has gathered blood samples from the general population of the Nord-Trøndelag region in mid-Norway together with detailed phenotype and environmental data. Terms were not disclosed.
• Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., of San Diego, received approval from Health Canada to start a second Phase I trial of its vesicular monoamine transporter 2 compound NBI-98854. Pending positive data, the firm anticipates moving into a Phase II study later this year in patients with tardive dyskinesia.
• Pozen Inc., of Chapel Hill, N.C., entered a settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., the U.S. arm of the Petach Tkva, Israel-based firm, to resolve a U.S. patent infringement suit related to Teva's filing of an abbreviated new drug application to market generic Treximet (sumatriptan/naproxen sodium) marketed by Pozen's exclusive U.S. licensee, GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London. Under the terms, Teva will be dismissed without prejudice from the consolidated litigation currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Teva and several others, but will agree to be bound by the outcome of the litigation or any resulting settlements with third parties. The settlement does not end the ongoing litigation against the other three defendants. Discovery in the litigation is in process, and the case is currently scheduled for trial in the fourth quarter.
• Sorrento Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, completed the construction of an extensive library of full-length, fully human monoclonal antibodies. Initial analysis indicated a potential diversity of more than 1 trillion unique mAbs, and the company believes that makes its library the largest full-length, fully human antibody library available for drug discovery and development partnerships. Sorrento's technologies generate antibodies that are unencumbered by third-party royalty obligations placed on conventional antibody discovery technologies, the company said.
• Trevena Inc., of King of Prussia, Pa., started a Phase I trial of TRV120027, a titratable intravenous agent designed to treat acute decompensated heart failure. The dose-escalation, crossover study will enroll two cohorts of healthy patients, with results expected to inform dose selection and regimens for subsequent studies in heart failure patients. TRV120027 is a biased ligand aimed at targeting the angiotensin II Type I receptor (AT1R) to block angiotensin-mediated G protein signaling while stimulating AT1R-specific beta-arrestin signaling.