• Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Houston, received a company commercialization award of $5.7 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The award will be used for personnel, manufacturing and clinical testing of the company's graft-vs.-host candidate, CaspaCIDe. The award is part of a $500 million initiative by the state of Texas to provide awards and matching funds for innovative cancer research and prevention programs.

• Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, acquired a biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing facility in Fremont, Calif., from Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif. The facility contains more than 200,000 square feet of laboratory space and employs more than 300 people. The purchase price was not disclosed. Boehringer Ingelheim is a contract manufacturer for Amgen and will continue to support Amgen's products.

California State Controller John Chiang sent a letter to Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., requesting that the company reduce the price of its HIV/AIDS medications for California and its AIDS Drug Assistance Program. ADAP provides the medications to low-income patients. Chiang said that there are currently 7,261 individuals on waiting lists to receive AIDS medications in 11 states, and thousands more have been dropped from the program. The National Alliance of State and Territorial Aids directors said that Gilead's Atripla accounts for about 20 percent of ADAP costs nationally.

• XTL Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Herzliya, Israel, entered a term sheet to obtain an exclusive license to use the entire technology of MinoGuard Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel, in return for royalties on sales and milestone payments. MinoGuard, which was founded in 2007, has developed lead compound SAM-101 through a 70-patient Phase IIa trial in schizophrenia, with data showing that use of the drug indicated improvement of the positive symptoms of the disease as well as a decrease in the negative symptoms. SAM-101 is based on a combination of existing antipsychotics and a medicinal compound. Specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.