* Agennix Inc., of Houston, and Royal Gist-Brocades N.V., of Delft,the Netherlands, are collaborating on development, manufacturingand commercialization of human lactoferren. Gist-Brocades, which istaking a 10 percent position in Agennix, has patents and applicationson the production of proteins in Aspergillus species. Agennix haspatents covering human lactoferrin DNA sequences and proteins.

* Athena Neurosciences Inc., of South San Francisco, said itsEuropean subsidiary was asked by the Committee on Safety andMedicine to respond to certain questions regarding its product licenseapplication before the CSM would provide final advice regarding itsrecommendation to the U.K.'s Medicines Control Agency.

* Atrix Laboratories Inc., of Fort Collins, Colo., received FDAclearance to market the Atrisorb Barrier for Guided TissueRegeneration, a dental product. It is the first product the companywill market based on its Atrigel biodegradable polymer technology.

* Biogen Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said results of a Phase II/III trialof Hirulog showed the thrombin inhibitor achieved a statisticallysignificant improvement over heparin in opening blood vessels inheart attack patients. The trial was ongoing when Biogen said inNovember 1994 it was discontinuing its Hirulog program after aPhase III study failed to demonstrate statistical significance,compared with heparin, in preventing cardiac complicationsassociated with angioplasty. Biogen is seeking a partner to continuedevelopment.

* CytoTherapeutics Inc., of Providence, R.I., said the company'sfounding scientist, Patrick Aebischer, received a $700,000 grant fromthe Swiss National Science Foundation for clinical trials ofCytoTherapeutics' therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),or Lou Gehrig's disease. The treatment involves using a cell-containing implant to deliver ciliary neurotrophic factor into thecentral nervous system of ALS patients. Aebischer will conduct thestudies at the Gene Therapy Center of the Centre HospitalierUniversitaire Vaudois in Switzerland, where he is a director.

* Emisphere Technologies Inc., of Hawthorne, N.Y., filed aninvestigational new drug application to conduct a Phase I studyevaluating its proprietary technology for the oral delivery of heparin.If successful, the company would run a Phase II study evaluating theformulation over two weeks as a prophylaxis for deep veinthrombosis following knee and hip surgeries.

* Gensia Inc., of San Diego, received product licenses to market theGenESA system in Belgium and Portugal. Gensia now has approvalto market the system, designed for use in diagnosing coronary arterydisease, in nine European countries.

* Gliatech Inc., of Cleveland, Ohio, said a study of patients whoparticipated in a European trial of Adcon-L for preventing adhesionsfollowing lumbar surgery revealed that severity of recurrent painincreased with the amount of post-operative scarring on membranessurrounding the spinal chord. The clinical assessments, described asthe first demonstration of the relation between adhesions and painfollowing back surgery, were reported in the April 1996 issue ofNeurosurgery. Gliatech's Adcon (short for adhesion control) devicesare semisynthetic carbohydrate polymeric gels designed to act asbarriers against formation of internal scars. Adcon-L was approved inEurope in 1995.

* ImmuCell Corp., of Portland, Maine, said the Center for SpecialImmunology Inc. (CSI), of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will conductongoing clinical trials of ImmuCell's CryptoGAM for prevention ofcryptosporidiosis in AIDS patients. CryptoGAM, studied in fourPhase I/II trials, is a hyperimmune bovine immunoglobulin. Financialterms were not disclosed. ImmuCell has worldwide manufacturingand marketing rights to the drug. CSI will continue clinical trials inreturn for royalties on the product.

* NeXstar Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Boulder, Colo., got approval tomarket DaunoXome as a primary therapy for AIDS-related Kaposi'ssarcoma in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Norway.

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.