• Advaxis Inc., of Princeton, N.J., inked a research collaboration with the Wistar Institute, which has developed mouse models for use in exploring the potential of fibroblast activation protein as a target for immune attack. Advaxis will use those models as the basis for developing a live attenuated Listeria vaccine. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• BioMarker Strategies, of Baltimore, said the National Cancer Institute approved the final $1 million in funding for the company's Small Business Innovative Research contract to develop the SnapPath live tumor cell testing system. SnapPath is in development to assist oncologists in determining which targeted drug treatments will benefit patients. The final amount brings the total grant to $2.3 million.

• Debiopharm Group, of Lausanne, Switzerland, signed a worldwide licensing agreement with Aurigene Discovery Technologies Ltd., of Bangalore, India, for the commercialization of Debio 1142 for oncology indications. The two companies had a previous successful collaboration program, and the licensing agreement is a continuation of that relationship.

• Forest Laboratories Inc., of New York, completed its acquisition of Clinical Data Inc., Newton, Mass., through a short form merger under Delaware law. It completed its tender offer by wholly owned subsidiary Magnolia Acquisition Corp., purchasing all outstanding shares of common stock of Clinical Data, plus notes and warrants. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 23, 2011.)

• The board of directors for La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co. approved a 1-for-100 reverse stock split effected after market close on April 14. The San Diego-based company will not be issuing fractional shares, and will pay the cash value for those fractional shares that would have been issued. American Stock Transfer and Trust Co. is the registrar and transfer agent for the stock.

• Mpex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said Axcan Holdings Inc., of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Mpex and lead product candidate, Aeroquin, a proprietary aerosol formulation of levofloxacin, which is in Phase III trials for the treatment of pulmonary infections in patients with cystic fibrosis. Mpex said all assets not associated with Aeroquin, including financial and human resources, will be spun out of Mpex and into a new company to remain in San Diego. Former Mpex personnel will continue to lead the Aeroquin development program in collaboration with Axcan, Mpex said. Specific financial terms were not disclosed but include an up-front payment and a series of milestone payments. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2011. Axcan Holdings is a privately held company with operations in more than 40 countries and about 500 employees worldwide. Subsidiary Axcan Pharma US Inc. has offices in Alabama and New Jersey, with about 190 employees.

• Poniard Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Francisco, is seeking shareholder approval for its board to execute a reverse stock split between 1-for-15 and 1-for-25 shares of common stock. The split is intended to remedy the company's minimum bid price deficiency for continued listing on Nasdaq. Shareholders will vote on the authorization for the stock split at the company's annual meeting June 9.

• Quest PharmaTech Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, announced a development arrangement with Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., of Philadelphia, to evaluate in a 30-patient clinical trial whether Hemispherx's Ampligen could potentially be used as a vaccine enhancer for cancer immunotherapy with Quest's antibody immunotherapy technology. Costs of the trial will be shared equally by Quest and Hemispherx. Hemispherx also will provide technical expertise and relevant data to support the regulatory process necessary to conduct the clinical trial, and maintain clinical supply inventory.

• RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Rockville, Md., announced that it has shifted its near-term clinical development focus to RGN-259, its preservative-free topical eye drop, for the treatment of symptomatic dry eye, primarily due to recently announced data supporting RGN-259 for this indication. The company said that in two studies evaluating RGN-259 to treat symptomatic dry eye induced in mice, RGN-259 resulted in statistically significant improvement of corneal healing compared with negative and positive controls. The decision also results from uncertainty caused by the FDA's clinical hold of the Phase II clinical trial with its RGN-352 product candidate for patients who have experienced an acute myocardial infarction.

• Regulus Therapeutics Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., said it is collaborating with researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine seeking treatments for angiogenic diseases using microRNA therapeutics. The company said that the research will combine Regulus' microRNA platform with UCSD's expertise in animal models of angiogenesis to discover anti-angiogenic microRNA-targeted therapies. Angiogenesis, which is the formation of new blood vessels, contributes to the severity of cancer, diabetes, macular degeneration, inflammatory disease and arthritis. MicroRNAs have been implicated in regulating biological networks involved in angiogenesis.

• RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Worcester, Mass., completed its acquisition of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Apthera Inc. Apthera's stockholders will initially receive 4.8 million shares of RXi common stock, and will be entitled to milestone payments related to NeuVax. (See BioWorld Today, April 1, 2011.)

• ValiRx plc, of London, signed agreements with Imperial College and Oxford University for the development of VAL101 and VAL201. Imperial College, of London, will take over the late preclinical development of Val101, using funds from the Eurostars scheme. Oxford University, of Oxford, UK, will focus on preclinical development of VAL201 for prostate cancer.