• 3rd Millennium Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., received a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the Department of Defense. The $750,000 Phase II grant supports the development of a microarray information system to support infectious disease research in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. 3rd Millennium is expected to create a customizable informatics platform for the project.

• Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., of San Diego, signed a letter of intent with Baxter Healthcare Corp., of Deerfield, Ill., giving Alliance an option to purchase Baxter's ownership interest in PFC Therapeutics LLC, the joint venture established by the companies in May 2000 to commercialize Oxygent in North America and Europe. The product is designed to be an intravascular oxygen carrier. Alliance would pay Baxter a royalty on Oxygent sales by PFC, its licensees, or its assignees following regulatory approval. Alliance also would have six months to exercise its option to purchase Baxter's ownership interest in PFC. Baxter would retain a right of first offer to market Oxygent in the U.S. In August, Alliance cut 40 percent of its work force and said it needed more funding in order to continue in the joint venture. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 30, 2002.)

• AlphaRx Inc., of Richmond Hill, Ontario, acquired exclusive, worldwide commercialization rights to the cancer drug VT-1, developed by a number of Canadian research institutions. VT-1, which can be targeted to kill malignant tumor cells and their blood supply, has demonstrated the ability to kill tumor cells that express a certain receptor (CD77) with great efficiency. More significantly, CD77-bearing tumor cells, which are known to be multiple-drug resistant, are sensitive to VT-1. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Applied Biosystems Group, of Foster City, Calif., released an updated Celera Discovery System online platform that includes enhanced visualization and analysis tools for comparing human and mouse genomes, additional data integration, and a new subscription model for academic researchers. The additions are designed to allow subscribers to more easily apply comparative genomics to their discovery process.

• BioForce Nanosciences Inc., of Ames, Iowa, received a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, a division of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The award, the amount of which was not disclosed, aims to design and test microcantilever devices for the purpose of improving deposition of biomaterials in ultraminiaturized arrays.

• Biogen Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., reported its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings. Revenues for the year ended Dec. 31 increased to about $1.1 billion, up from about $1 billion. The company's net income was $239 million, or $1.57 per share. Operating earnings for the year were $242 million, or $1.59 per share. For the fourth quarter, the company earned $302 million, up from $281 in 2001's fourth quarter. Its net income for the fourth quarter was $81 million, or 53 cents per share. Operating earnings were $65 million, or 43 cents per year, down from 48 cents per share for the previous year. The company gave guidance of operating earnings per share in 2003 of $1.63 to $1.78, and diluted earnings per share in the first quarter of 2003 in the range of 31 cents to 38 cents.

• Ciphergen Biosystems Inc., of Fremont, Calif., expanded its collaboration with Pfizer Inc., of New York, to include studies designed to discover protein biomarkers from human serum that provide early detection of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease vs. healthy individuals. The studies will be conducted at Ciphergen's Biomarker Discovery Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, on behalf of the experimental medicine group at Pfizer France. Financial and other terms were not disclosed.

• Emerald BioAgriculture Corp., of Lansing, Mich., received $6.2 million from a group led by Burrill & Co., of San Francisco, and A.M. Pappas and Associates, of Research Triangle Park, N.C. Emerald Bio develops, manufactures and markets biological and biochemical agents to improve crop yields, enhance quality, combat disease and fight pests. Its lead product, AuxiGro WP, is a yield-increasing biochemical that increases the uptake and use of nutrients needed for plant growth. Emerald Bio will use the funds for research and development and for sales and marketing.

• Endovasc Ltd. Inc., of Montgomery, Texas, received FDA approval to conduct its Liprostin Phase II pilot study at the Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. The study will enroll 12 patients in the critical phase of peripheral occlusive vascular disease, many of whom face imminent limb amputation or major revascularization surgery. The study, which will begin next month, is designed to assess the drug's safety and effectiveness.

• Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc., of San Diego, said it is growing the first greenhouse plant lines to yield an antibody product designed to prevent HIV. Epicyte plans to produce three human IgA antibodies in plants - 2G12, 4E10 and 2F5- all of which bind HIV envelope proteins important in the infectious pathway. Its HIV Plantibodies technology was developed as part of an Advanced Technology SBIR award from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

• Hyseq Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., and Variagenics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said they received approval from their shareholders for their merger. The merger's closing is anticipated Jan. 31. The companies announced in November they planned to merge in a deal valued at $55.9 million. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 12, 2002.)

• Innogenetics NV, of Ghent, Belgium, renewed a research collaboration to provide candidate drug targets to Solvay Pharmaceuticals BV, of Brussels, Belgium. The five-year-old partnership is being extended three years, during which both parties will complete work on previously discovered targets as well as explore new ones. Also, new methods for the validation and functional analysis of the candidates will be explored. Financial terms were not disclosed, but in the original agreement, Innogenetics received a €4 million up-front payment, annual research payments between €1.5 million and €2 million, an equity investment from Solvay, and potential milestones and royalties.

• Inpharmatica Ltd., of London, expanded a research collaboration to use its PharmaCarta technology platform to deliver sequences of protein families and genomic sequences to Serono SA, of Geneva. Inpharmatica will receive additional unspecified research funding and, as was the case in the original July 2001 agreement, milestone and royalty payments based on development and sales of resulting products.

• Insmed Inc., of Richmond, Va., requested a hearing before a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel to appeal a determination to delist its common stock from the Nasdaq National Market. Insmed received notice from Nasdaq indicating that it has failed to comply with the $1 minimum bid price requirement. The hearing request is expected to stay the delisting of Insmed's stock.

• ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., said the FDA's Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drug Advisory Committee will meet March 17 to consider ISTA's new drug application for Vitrase (ovine hyaluronidase) for the treatment of vitreous hemorrhage. Final decisions regarding the marketability of the product are made by the FDA.

• Kaleidos Pharma Inc., of Seattle, said the division of AIDS of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the NIH in Bethesda, Md., will initiate a second study of Kaleidos' drug, TGF alpha, in SIV-infected rhesus macaque monkeys. The study follows positive results from a completed study conducted by the NIH in collaboration with Kaleidos that demonstrated TGF alpha increased CD4 and CD8 T-cell counts in SIV-infected monkeys, the company said.

• Karo Bio AB, of Huddinge, Sweden, laid off 17 workers as part of a reorganization of its research and development operations, leaving a total of 116 employees. In the process, Karo also shuffled its management, including replacing its chief scientific officer. Karo said the staff reduction, which primarily affects biology functions in R&D, is the first step in an effort aimed at changing the ratio between the number of chemists to biologists at the company. Karo said it would strengthen its chemistry capabilities in order to generate more high-quality lead compounds.

• Miravant Medical Technologies, of Santa Barbara, Calif., presented two preclinical studies at the Cardiovascular Radiation Therapy meeting in Washington. Results of the study showed the PhotoPoint photodynamic therapy inhibited problematic cell proliferation in a synthetic vascular access graft failure model. The PhotoPoint medical procedure is based on drugs that are activated by light.

• OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Melville, N.Y., said the randomized, international Phase III trial evaluating Tarceva (erlotinib HCl) in combination with gemcitabine in patients with advanced, previously untreated pancreatic cancer has reached its target enrollment. Tarceva is a small-molecule HER1/epidermal endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitor being developed in an alliance between OSI, Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland. In December, the study's sample size was reduced to 450 patients, allowing OSI to prioritize its development resources onto the non-small cell lung cancer program, the alliance's primary indication for Tarceva.

• Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, and Kiadis BV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, entered an agreement to begin a program directed at wound healing. Oxford will apply findings from its Focused Target Identification platform, which identified an enzyme key for blood vessel growth. Kiadis will apply its High Resolution Screening technology to identify molecules that interact with the enzymes. The companies plan to outlicense for commercialization any small molecule they develop.

• Protiveris Inc., of Rockville, Md., said it completed the prototype VeriScan 3000 - a biosensor system capable of real-time and simultaneous detection of multiple biomolecular interactions. Protiveris said it plans to place the VeriScan 3000 in alpha trials designed to demonstrate its capabilities with unspecified biopharmaceutical companies.

• Replicon NeuroTherapeutics Inc., of Birmingham, Ala., said it received a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Cancer Institute, of Bethesda, Md. The Phase II grant of more than $471,894 is to develop replicons as brain tumor therapies. The grant is a renewal of a previous grant originally funded for $750,000. The company said it would use the funds to complete the manufacturing of replicons that it plans to use in clinical testing.

• V.I. Technologies Inc., of Watertown, Mass., said it no longer intends to effect a reverse split of its common stock. The proposal was floated in an effort to remain in compliance with continued listing standards for the Nasdaq National Market regarding minimum stock price, but Nasdaq compliance officials have since indicated that the continued listing standards are under review and will be completed soon. Accordingly, Vitex will not seek shareholder approval for a reverse split. The company's stock (NASDAQ:VITX) gained 13 cents Tuesday, or 15.9 percent, to close at 95 cents.

• Xenogen Corp., of Alameda, Calif., entered into a commercial licensing and lease agreement with NV Organon, of Oss, the Netherlands. Under the multiyear agreement, Organon will use Xenogen's biophotonic imaging technology and LPTA animal models to study potential drug candidates. The commercial license extends the terms of the original agreement with Organon and expands Organon's use of Xenogen's imaging technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.