* Alteon Inc., of Ramsey, N.J., has executed a private placement of $5 million of 6 percent cumulative convertible preferred stock. The placement was completed with investment funds advised by the Pallidin Group, LP, of New York. The conversion price of the stock will be set a discount to the average of the daily low prices of Alteon's common stock during the 10 days immediately preceding the conversion date. The purchasers received warrants to purchase 50,000 shares of common stock at $4.025 per share.

* Biomatrix Inc., of Ridgefield, N.J., has signed a marketing and distribution agreement with Bayer AG to market Synvisc, a viscosupplementation product that treats osteoarthritis of the knee. Bayer will pay Biomatrix a licensing fee of up to $5 million and will support two Biomatrix medical marketing jobs, in exchange for exclusive marketing and distribution rights in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Israel. The companies will work together to get the drug approved in those countries. Biomatrix currently markets Synvisc in Canada and some European countries, and has received FDA Advisory Panel approval in the U.S.

* Cortech Inc., of Denver, has agreed to relinquish $1.5 million in research funding by amending its agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., of Osaka, Japan. Ono now will assume all research responsibilities during the final six months of the three-year collaboration agreement, but Cortech retains the same rights to all compounds discovered and developed under the agreement.

* Genzyme Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., has reached an agreement to sell its anti-adhesion device, Seprafilm bioresorbable membrane, to the Cleveland Clinic for use in colorectal procedures requiring abdominal surgery. Surgeons at the Cleveland-based hospital perform 1,000 to 1,200 colorectal surgeries each year.

* Large Scale Biology Corp., of Rockville, Md., has received a Phase I small business innovation research grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop new tools for purification of subcellular organelles. The project is aiming for high-resolution separation of organelles and particles in two dimensions using advanced centrifuge technology. The privately held company plans to use its "s-rho" technology for large-scale preparation of nuclear transcription factors for comprehensive mapping by two-dimensional electrophoresis.

* Oxigene Inc., of Lund, Sweden, reports that it has struck research agreements with Harvard Medical School's Joint Center for Radiation Therapy, Department of Radiation Oncology, in Boston; and the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston. The collaboration will involve preclinical and clinical research on Oxi-104 and Neu-Sensamide, focusing on metastatic tumor growth, brain tumors and induction of cell death. Harvard and M.D. Anderson will assist the company in establishing protocols for clinical trails.

* SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Mateo, Calif., has received orphan drug status for the oral compound CPX to treat cystic fibrosis. CPX targets the root cause of cystic fibrosis, the malfunctioning cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, which normally secretes chloride across cell membranes. SciClone is set to start a Phase I clinical trial at six sites to measure effectiveness.

* Sheffield Medical Technologies Inc., of New York, has paid 600,000 shares of common stock to acquire Camelot Pharmacal LLC, a privately held emerging pharmaceutical company based in St. Louis. Loren Peterson, a principal of Camelot, has been named CEO of the merged entity. Camelot executives have options to purchase 1.2 million common shares of Sheffield at the market price at the time of acquisition.

* Viragen Inc., of Miami, has finished construction of its first factory, in Edinburgh, Scotland, where it will make Omniferon, its natural human alpha interferon product. The plant, which can produce $100 million worth of Omniferon annually, is scheduled to open in July. Scotland's National Blood Transfusion Service has committed to the project by entering into a long-term exclusive agreement granting Viragen access to its supply of human white blood cells, a necessary raw material.