• Acceleron Pharma Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., announced it has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association to support clinical studies of ACE-031 in Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, a disabling neuromuscular disease in which patients experience a progressive loss of muscle mass and strength. ACE-031 is an investigational protein therapeutic designed to build muscle and increase strength by blocking proteins that inhibit muscle growth and strength.

• The FDA has accepted a new drug application filing for Exelbine, an investigational drug by Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego. The agency previously issued a refuse-to-file letter for the drug because it said the compound's manufacturing site was insufficient to support a commercially viable expiration dating period. (See BioWorld Today, March 2, 2010.)

• Albany Molecular Research Inc., of Albany, N.Y., will merge its discovery research and development and discovery chemistry departments. The resulting global drug discovery organization will provide coordianted multidisciplinary discovery capabilities.

• Antigenics Inc., of Lexington, Mass., has changed its name to Agenus Inc. The stock will continue to trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange under its previous symbol, AGEN.

• BHV Pharmaceuticals, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., has entered into a license agreement with Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, for exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Remogliflozin Etabonate, a highly selective SGLT2 inhibitor. The agreement provides BHV exclusive global rights excluding Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Commercialization in China will be shared between Kissei and BHV. Remogliflozin etabonate is a Phase IIb compound in development for the treatment of Type II diabetes.

• Cell Medica Ltd., of London, entered an exclusive license agreement and research collaboration with the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, for the commercialization of a cell-based treatment for cancers associated with the oncogenic Epstein Barr virus. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, and European partner Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., decided to align the European regulatory strategy for omacetaxine with U.S. plans and will withdraw its European marketing authorization application for use in chronic myeloid leukemia patients who have failed Gleevec (imatinib, Novartis AG) therapy and who have the T3151 mutation. ChemGenex also informed the European Medicines Agency that it intends to submit a new application for CML patients who have failed therapy with two or more tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the second half of this year. (See BioWorld Today, July 15, 2010.)

• Curis Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., announced that the company has selected CUDC-907, an orally available, synthetic small-molecule inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and histone deacetylase as a development candidate from its targeted cancer programs. The company said it expects to file an investigational new drug application in late 2011.

• Generex Biotechnology Corp., of Toronto, and RXi Pharmaceutical Corp., of Worcester, Mass., reported positive early research data for the use of vaccine formulations developed with RXi's sd-rxRNA technology. The work was carried out with Generex's wholly owned immunotherapeutic vaccines subsidiary, Antigen Express Inc. The sd-rxRNA compounds silenced genes in up to 80 percent of hematopoietic cells.

• Horizon Discovery Ltd., of Cambridge, Mass., and the University of Washington entered a two-year research deal aimed at generating a process for gene editing in inducible human pluripotent stem cells. Research will use recombinant adeno-associated virus gene-editing vectors to enable the future creation of thousands of new X-MAN cell models. Horizon will fund the $400,000 program and will have an exclusive right to any new intellectual property created.

• Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., added two new drugs to its development pipeline: ISIS-FGFR4Rx for obesity and ISIS-STAT3Rx, a cancer candidate.

• Merck, of Whitehouse Station, N.J., announced that regulatory applications for boceprevir, Merck's investigational oral hepatitis C virus protease inhibitor, were submitted in 2010 and have been accepted for expedited review in both the U.S. and the European Union.

• NovaBay Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Emeryville, Calif., said its lead Aganocide, NVC-422, showed in vitro activity against New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase-1-encoded Klebsiella pneumonia at a dose of 2 mg/mL. The standard antibiotic, Imipenem, is not effective against NDM-1 encoded strains.

• Plexxikon Inc., of Berkeley, Calif., signed a deal with Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, to co-promote PLX4032, an oral kinase inhibitor targeting the B-Raf mutation, in the U.S. The compound was partnered in 2006 with Basel, Switzerland-based Roche AG, which later acquired Genentech. Under the terms with Genentech, Plexxikon will provide a specialty sales force for co-promotion in the U.S. and will reimburse Genentech for certain marketing and promotion costs. Plexxikon will be entitled to enhanced royalties on product sales. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 5, 2006.)

• Receptos Inc., of San Diego, said it will collaborate with Eli Lilly and Co. to research and develop small-molecule modulators of an undisclosed GPCR target. Financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed. Separately, Receptos announced that it granted a license and technology transfer to Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Titusville, N.J., for Receptos' GPCR crystal structure determination technology. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed.

• Rib-X Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., said preclinical data demonstrated delafloxacin's superior infection-site potency against Gram-positive pathogens when compared to moxifloxacin. Data were published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

• Ramius V&O Acquisition LLC and affiliates of Royalty Pharma, of New York, completed a cash tender offer to purchase outstanding shares of Cypress Bioscience Inc., of San Diego, for $6.50 per share; 73.6 percent of outstanding Cypress shares were tendered, and V&O Acquistion holds an additional 9.9 percent. A total of 28,712,988 shares were tendered. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 16, 2010.)

• The Korean Food and Drug Administration approved Uracyst, by Stellar Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Port Hueneme, Calif., for interstitial cystitis. Uracyst is currently marketed in Canada and Europe. Stellar will deliver the first commercial order of the drug to its South Korean licensee, Jeilmedix Pharmaceutical Co. for distribution in the first quarter .