* Alfacell Corp., of Bloomfield, N.J., said its common stockcommenced trading on the NASDAQ SmallCap Market Securitiessystem on Dec. 5 under the symbol "ACEL."

* Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., of San Diego, said a developmentalmilestone payment of $15 million is being made under its licenseagreement with Johnson & Johnson affiliates Ortho Biotech Inc., ofRaritan, N.J., and The R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical ResearchInstitute, also of Raritan, for perflubron emulsion, aperfluorochemical-based emulsion to be used as a temporary "bloodsubstitute." Perflubron emulsion is currently being studied in multiplePhase IIb clinical trials to reduce or eliminate the need for donorblood transfusions during surgical procedures.

* Antex Biologics, of Gaithersburg, Md., said the FDA approved theinitiation of a clinical study under an investigational new drugapplication for an orally administered Helicobacter pylori vaccine forthe prevention of peptic ulcers, gastritis and other related disorders.The randomized double-blind Phase I trial will be composed ofapproximately 40 volunteers. The vaccine consists of whole killed H.pylori cells in combination with a mucosal adjuvant.

* Connective Therapeutics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., has raised $8million in a self-managed financing, through the sale of $6 million ofits common stock to institutional investors and $2 million of Series Aconvertible preferred shares to an offshore investor. Investors in thecommon stock offering include new institutional investors New YorkLife Insurance Co., Weiss Peck & Greer Lifesciences Funds andIntegral Capital Partners, and an existing investor, GIMV n.v.

* Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, said that its wholly-ownedsubsidiary, Athena Nuerosciences Inc., of South San Francisco,Calif., received from the FDA an approvable letter for Diastat, a newproprietary gel formulation of diazepam, approvable for rectaladministration into the management of selected, refractory, epilepticpatients on stable regimens of anti-epileptic drugs who requireintermittent use of diazepam to control bouts of increased seizureactivity.

* EntreMed Inc., of Rockville, Md., has licensed the worldwiderights to the newly discovered angiogenesis inhibitor, Endostatin,from Children's Hospital, a teaching affiliate of the Harvard MedicalSchool in Boston. Endostatin is a natural antiangiogenic protein thathas been shown to inhibit the growth of blood vessels, therebystarving cancerous tumors.

* Genelabs Technologies Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., said amilestone, triggering a $1 million payment to Genelabs, has beenreached in its worldwide licensing agreement with German companyBoehringer Mannheim, for the development and commercializationof diagnostic kits for the hepatitis G virus.

* Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said that agene-based assay, developed jointly at Eli Lilly & Co., ofIndianapolis, Ind., is ready to enter screening at Lilly to identifyatherosclerosis drug candidates. This is the second gene-based drugdiscovery effort at Millennium to reach the drug candidate screeningstage.

* Pharmagenesis Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and Eli Lilly & Co., ofIndianapolis, Ind., have signed an agreement aimed at isolating anddeveloping antifungal agents derived from microorganismsassociated with plants known to be resistant to fungal infections.Under the agreement, the EcoPharm division of Pharmagensis willisolate the plant-associated microorganisms and, from them,biological compounds that demonstrate antifungal activity. Lilly willbe responsible for preclinical and clinical development of leadcompounds from the collaborations.

* ProCyte Corp., of Kirkland, Wash., has received clearance from theFDA to begin marketing the company's OsmoCyte Pillow WoundDressing.

* SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Mateo, Calif., has launchedZadaxin thymosin alpha 1 in the People's Republic of China as atreatment for chronic hepatitis B.

* Sequus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., said it isshipping commercial supplies of Amphotec, which was cleared by theFDA on Nov. 22.

* Signal Pharmaceuticals, of San Diego, and the University ofMassachusetts Medical Center have signed a license agreementgiving Signal the exclusive worldwide rights to develop drugstargeting two cellular signaling proteins. These signaling proteins,MKK3 and MKK4, belong to a family of cellular proteins known as"mitogen-activated protein kinases," or the MAP Kinase family.

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