• 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said it reached the first milestone in a drug research collaboration with Recordati Group, of Milan, Italy. As part of the agreement, 4SC used its virtual high-throughput screening technology, 4Scan, to evaluate a pool of 3.3 million small organic molecules for their binding efficacy to an undisclosed target from Recordati. Within three months, 4SC has provided Recordati with several highly active and selective compounds, the company said. The most suitable compounds will now be tested in animal studies.

• Accelrys Inc., of San Diego, a subsidiary of Pharmacopeia Inc., of Princeton, N.J., reported a three-year software licensing agreement with Intervet Innovation GmbH, of Schwabenheim, Germany, which is part of Akzo Nobel. Accelrys' molecular modeling, simulation and combinatorial chemistry applications will be deployed in Intervet's new research center in Schwabenheim, near Frankfurt, to increase the efficiency of its drug discovery research efforts. The licensing agreement provides Intervet scientists access to Accelrys solutions ranging from protein simulation and virtual screening tools to structural diversity applications.

• Adolor Corp., of Exton, Pa., reported top-line results from a Phase III trial of alvimopan in opioid bowel dysfunction patients. This study enrolled 168 patients who were chronic users of opioids primarily for pain relief, and whose bowel function had been impaired as a result of opioid treatment. The primary endpoint of the study was the proportion of patients having a bowel movement within eight hours after each dose of study medication during the 21-day treatment period. On average, the proportion of patients who had at least one bowel movement within eight hours of each dose was 43 percent (p< 0.001 vs. placebo) for alvimopan 0.5 mg, 55 percent (p< 0.001 vs. placebo) for alvimopan 1 mg and 29 percent for placebo. Additional clinical studies are expected to be required before any approval application will be filed with regulatory authorities, it said.

• Ambion Inc., of Austin, Texas, was granted a worldwide exclusive research market license from the University of Massachusetts for a patent application focused on vector technology for expressing small interfering RNA. Financial terms were not disclosed. Ambion focuses on RNA-based life science research and molecular diagnostics.

• Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., entered into definitive agreements with certain existing and new institutional investors for the purchase of 2.2 million shares of its common stock at $2.75 per share in a direct equity placement for gross proceeds of $6.1 million. Rodman & Renshaw Inc., of Chicago, served as placement agent for the offering.

• Astex Technology Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, joined the Partnership for Structural Biology established at the European Synchroton Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. PSB membership will provide Astex with guaranteed access to the new X-ray beamline dedicated to macromolecular structural biology, facilitating continued application of Astex's high-throughput X-ray crystallography technology to drug discovery.

• BioForce Nanosciences Inc., of Ames, Iowa, said it received a $2 million equity investment from the Private Equity team of the Societe Generale Asset Management in Paris, in its first round of financing. BioForce develops ultra-miniaturized nanoarray technologies for solid-phase, high-throughput molecular analysis systems.

• Bioxel Pharma Inc., of Quebec City, said it filed a preliminary prospectus for a public offering of common shares in Canada. Proceeds will be used to support investments in Bioxel's large-scale manufacturing process, to finance research and development activities, to repay a bridge loan and for working capital and other general corporate purposes. The agent syndicate is led by Dundee Securities Corp. and includes National Bank Financial Inc. and Canaccord Capital Corp. The company focuses on naturally derived taxanes for cancer and other diseases.

• Cypress Bioscience Inc., of San Diego, said data were presented at the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine meeting in Phoenix showing the effectiveness of milnacipran in animal models of visceral pain. Milnacipran is a norepinephrine serotonin reuptake inhibitor being developed for fibromyalgia syndrome and other chronic pain disorders. It was reported that intravenous milnacipran produced significant inhibition of CRD-evoked reflex activity, suggesting it may have potential to treat acute visceral pain.

• DeCode genetics Inc., of Reykjavik, Iceland, said its scientists have generated a 3-dimensional image of how the cancer drug topotecan binds with topoisomerase I enzyme and DNA to prevent cell division and proliferation. The company is applying the information to discover cancer therapies in the same family of compounds. The study was published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• DepoMed Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., said it settled a lawsuit with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., originally filed by DepoMed in January. The parties agreed in principle for a onetime payment of $18 million to be made to DepoMed. All claims will be dropped against the companies and they will grant each other a limited nonexclusive, royalty-free license. The license Bristol-Myers obtained from DepoMed extends to certain current and future products. DepoMed is applying its oral drug delivery systems to the development of oral products and improved formulations of existing oral drugs. DepoMed's stock (AMEX:DMI) rose 42 cents Monday, or 21.2 percent, to close at $2.40.

• Endovasc Ltd., of Montgomery, Texas, said an agreement that gave GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, a temporary exclusive right to review and discuss scientific developments associated with Angiogenix, Endovasc's cardiovascular product, was terminated. The company said it has received interest from other companies and decided discussions with GlaxoSmithKline "were not moving forward the way we thought they could and further discussions would be counterproductive." Angiogenix is a small nicotine isomer in late-stage development.

• Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said it plans to investigate the use of HuMax-CD4 for use in the treatment of T-cell lymphomas. Genmab will focus on cutaneous T-cell lymphoma patients initially and it is designing a pilot Phase II study to treat about 25 lymphoma patients. In previous studies, HuMax-CD4 reduced the number of memory CD4 T cells in both psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis patients' bloodstreams.

• GenVec Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., reported final results from its Phase Ib trial of its lead oncology product candidate, TNFerade. The results were presented Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Molecular Therapeutics Symposium in San Diego. The Phase Ib trials involved patients with a variety of cancers, including cancer of the pancreas, breast, lung, head and neck, skin, colon and rectum. Twenty-two out of 30 patients, or 73 percent, showed objective tumor shrinkage, which means that their tumors shrank between 25 percent and 100 percent with TNFerade therapy. Four out of 30 showed stable disease, and four out of 30 showed progressive disease in the injected lesion. The responses were durable during the follow-up period from two to 12 months.

• Human Genome Sciences Inc., of Rockville, Md., presented results from preclinical studies of Albuleukin and TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2 agonistic human monoclonal antibodies. These results show that Albuleukin has an improved ability to mediate an antitumor response with less frequent dosing and less administered drug on a molar basis, compared with recombinant interleukin-2, in a mouse model of human malignant melanoma that has metastasized to the liver. The data also showed improved survival outcomes for Albuleukin compared with recombinant interleukin-2. Albuleukin is Human Genome's long-acting form of interleukin-2.

• Luminex Corp., of Austin, Texas, reported the execution of three agreements with Bayer Diagnostics, a division of Bayer Corp., of Tarrytown, N.Y., covering a license agreement and related supply agreement for Luminex's xMAP technology, as well as a multiyear agreement relating to the development of a new cellular analyzer. The license agreement grants Bayer the right to develop and distribute in vitro diagnostic products based on Luminex's xMAP technology. Bayer Diagnostics will pay Luminex a one-time non-refundable license fee. Luminex also would receive royalties from any resulting products.

• Maxim Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said that clinical researchers presented results from a Phase II study in advanced metastatic melanoma patients demonstrating that combination therapy with Ceplene (histamine dihydrochloride) and interleukin-2 induced significant and measurable increases in the number and function of key activated immune cells that are known to target cancer cells. Maxim's drug candidate, Ceplene, is being tested in a final Phase III trial in advanced metastatic melanoma designed to support registration for marketing approval. The results were reported at the 17th annual Society for Biological Therapy meeting in San Diego over the weekend.

• MorphoSys AG, of Munich, Germany, successfully installed its fully automated antibody generation system, AutoCAL, at the New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson company Centocor Inc.'s research facility in Pennsylvania. AutoCAL is a robotic system developed by MorphoSys for the high-throughput screening of MorphoSys HuCAL antibody libraries. For the successful completion of the AutoCAL test run at Centocor, MorphoSys received a milestone payment. Financial details were not disclosed. MorphySys and Centocor signed an expansion of their existing antibody agreement in March 2002. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 4, 2001.)

• Prescient NeuroPharma Inc., of Toronto, said its chairman, William Comer, accepted the resignation of President and CEO Anthony Giovinazzo, effective immediately. Due to the resignation of Giovinazzo, the company received notice that certain bridge investors consider the resignation to be a material adverse change and they have reserved their rights as a result. Comer also announced that Rashid Aziz, a current member of Prescient's board, will assume Giovinazzo's duties on an interim basis.

• SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Mateo, Calif., reported results from an animal model study demonstrating that Zadaxin treatment following standard chemotherapy for melanoma significantly increased survival. In the study, 60 percent of the group treated with Zadaxin via continuous infusion for four days after receiving chemotherapy survived to the 60-day endpoint. By comparison, none of the mice receiving only chemotherapy survived after 42 days. The results were presented Saturday at the Molecular Therapeutics Symposium of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists in San Diego.

• SuperGen Inc., of Dublin, Calif., said the FDA designated Orathecin (rubitecan) oral for pancreatic cancer as a "fast track" product for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer that is resistant or refractory to chemotherapies. The company recently said it is scheduled to begin the new drug application filing by year-end and complete the process in the first quarter of 2003.

• US Oncology Inc., of Houston, said its board members authorized the company to repurchase up to $50 million of its common stock. The shares can be repurchased periodically both in the open market and private transactions, depending on stock price and the company's cash position, it said. US Oncology is a cancer-care services company.