• Critical Outcome Technologies Inc., of London, Ontario, initiated an experimental program, which includes a pharmacodynamic xenograft study aimed at confirming that Akt/Akt2 is a target for COTI-2 in the intact organism with a human tumor that produces increased amounts of Akt, as well as the completion of an optimal oral formulation for COTI-2 for investigational new drug application-enabling experiments and Phase I testing. The company said those activities are in response to feedback from prospective partners for COTI-2.

• Ensemble Therapeutics Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., triggered a milestone payment from partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of Princeton, N.J., by developing an Ensemblin-based therapeutic against one of the targets in their collaboration. Achievement of the milestone was based on specific criteria of the drug, including potency, selectivity and pharmacokinetics. That drug target program will now transition to BMS for development. (See BioWorld Today, April 15, 2009.)

• GW Pharmaceuticals plc, of Porton Down, UK, reported it entered an exclusive license agreement with Novartis Pharma AG, of Basel, Switzerland, to commercialize Sativex, which is being developed as a treatment for spasticity due to multiple sclerosis, in Australia, New Zealand, Asia (excluding Japan, China and Hong Kong), the Middle East (excluding Israel/Palestine) and Africa. The company said Novartis will have exclusive commercialization rights to Sativex and will also be responsible for regulatory filings and act as marketing authorization holder. GW said it will be responsible for manufacturing and supply. Sativex is also in Phase III development for the treatment of cancer pain. GW said it will receive an up-front payment of $5 million and will be eligible for additional payments totaling $28.75 million upon the achievement of approval and commercial milestones.

• Magnolia Acquisition Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest Laboratories Inc., accepted for purchase all securities tendered pursuant to its tender offer for outstanding shares of common stock in Clinical Data Inc., of Newton, Mass. The tender offer included certain outstanding notes and warrants convertible to or exercisable for common stock. The shares, warrants and notes tendered represent about 82.8 percent of the outstanding shares of Clinical Data on a fully diluted basis. Magnolia will convert all of the notes acquired to common stock, making it the owner of more than 90 percent of outstanding shares. Forest will then complete a short-form merger with Clinical Data under Delaware law within the next several days. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 23, 2011.)

• Morphotek Inc., of Exton, Pa., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., said the company received a grant of about $947,000 from the U.S. Department of Defense to support the continued development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAb) capable of neutralizing the toxic effects of botulinum neurotoxins. Morphotek was awarded $2.3 million in 2007 to support the initial development of the mAb therapies.

• P2D Biosciences, of Cincinnati, said that its lead attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) stimulant drug, PD2005, demonstrated efficacy in treating the core symptoms of ADHD in preclinical models. The company said the studies were funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. The preclinical study showed that PD2005, a dopamine transport inhibitor, was as effective in improving working memory, a core symptom of ADHD, as current first-line ADHD treatments.