Atrix Laboratories Inc., of Fort Collins, Colo., said it demonstrated in human clinical studies the safety and effectiveness of the first site-formed drug delivery system that employs a versatile, low-cost and bioabsorbable polymer technology to achieve the sustained release of medications throughout the body for periods of up to four months. The technology, called Atrigel, could be beneficial in therapeutic areas where the timed release of drugs is needed.
Aurora Biosciences Corp., of San Diego, said it successfully performed 100,000 separate cell-based assays in a 12-hour period using stand-alone components of its patented ultra-high throughput screening system, the UHTSS platform, in a non-integrated mode.
Cell Pathways Inc., of Horsham, Pa., said the FDA advised the company it plans to evaluate the new drug application for Aptosyn (exisulind) without requiring input from its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. The company is seeking approval for the use of Aptosyn for regression and prevention of precancerous colon polyps in patients with the inherited disease, familial adenomatous polyposis. The FDA requested a meeting later this month to review supplemental clinical data submitted in October.
Incyte Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and Eli Lilly & Co., of Indianapolis, expanded their agreement so that Lilly is now the first subscriber to Incyte's in silico single nucleotide polymorphism database. Lilly also extended its subscription to Incyte's LifeSeq Gold sequence and expression database. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Medco Research Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said the State of Wisconsin Investment Board filed a complaint in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to enjoin the Feb. 10 vote of Medco's stockholders on a proposed merger with King Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bristol, Tenn., as well as the merger itself. The complaint is over the value of the merger to stockholders, but Medco believes the $31.45 per share purchase price is in the best interest of stockholders. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board owns about 11.2 percent of Medco's outstanding shares.
Pathogenesis Corp., of Seattle, is collaborating with Chiron Corp., of Emeryville, Calif., to develop new antibiotics with new mechanisms of action to better address serious medical needs, such as concerns about drug resistance. The collaboration will combine Chiron's combinatorial chemistry library and expertise in high-throughput screening with PathoGenesis' strengths in bacterial target discovery and antibiotic development. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Phoenix International Life Sciences, of Montreal, said its subsidiary DNX Transgenic Sciences, of Cranbury, N.J., entered into a transgenics science-based genomics research program with CuraGen Corp., of New Haven, Conn. DNX will develop transgenic mice based upon a large number of novel gene constructs provided by CuraGen, and CuraGen will use the mice to identify novel therapeutic protein drugs.
Protein Design Labs Inc. (PDL), of Fremont, Calif., entered into a patent rights agreement with Celltech Chiroscience plc, of Slough, UK, covering certain intellectual property in the field of humanized monoclonal antibodies. Celltech will pay a $3 million up-front fee for rights to worldwide non-exclusive licenses under PDL's antibody humanization patents for up to three Celltech antibodies. PDL will pay Celltech an up-front fee for rights to worldwide non-exclusive licenses under Celltech's antibody humanization patent for up to three PDL antibodies. Upon exercise of a license for a particular antibody, each company will pay an additional license fee to the other company, and each company will pay the other royalties on sales of licensed antibodies.
Structural Bioinformatics Inc., of San Diego, and Quest Diagnostics Inc., also of San Diego, launched two structural pharmacogenomic databases targeted at HIV-protease and HIV-reverse transcriptase. The databases, QSVdBase-HIV/PR and QSVdBase-HIV/RT will be available in February.
Synsorb Biotech Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, said Synsorb Cd has received formal notification of a fast-track designation from the FDA for the prevention of recurrence of clostridium-difficile-associated disease, a condition often associated with antibiotic use, AIDS and chemotherapy.
Trega Biosciences Inc., of San Diego, entered into an agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, for the custom synthesis of exclusive solution phase compound libraries. The initial phase of the collaboration should last six months. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven Conn., and EPTTCO Ltd., of Abingdon, UK, said they completed an option agreement with AstraZeneca plc, of London, to collaborate on the evaluation of novel anticancer therapies under development by Vion and EPTTCO. AstraZeneca will evaluate a version of Vion's TAPET bacterial vector, armed with EPTTCO's prodrug activation technology. Vion and EPTTCO will codevelop these vectors and test them in preclinical cancer models, while AstraZeneca provides access to certain prodrugs. Financial details of a possible license to AstraZeneca of the vector will be disclosed if exercised. Other financial terms were not disclosed.