• Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., said it received an additional $7 million from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board. The board exercised warrants to purchase an additional 1.75 million shares of common stock at $4 per share. The warrants were a component of the 3.75 million units sold to the board in November and bring the board's direct ownership to more than 16 percent.

• Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Francisco, said the investigational drug capravirine, formerly AG1549, showed antiretroviral activity and was well tolerated in a short-course monotherapy trial of HIV-infected patients. In a second trial to examine pharmacokinetics, capravirine achieved target antiretroviral concentrations in plasma when administered in combination with HIV protease inhibitors. Agouron also said that in a 12-month follow-up analysis of patients in three HIV protease inhibitor trials, antiretroviral combination therapy containing protease inhibitors plus reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs) did not show an increase in the risk of myocardial infarction compared to therapy containing only RTIs.

• Ares-Serono, of Geneva, Switzerland, and Amrad, of Melbourne, Australia, signed an exclusive agreement to develop a novel treatment for infertility. Amrad has licensed to Ares-Serono certain patent rights and technology pertaining to recombinant leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Ares-Serono is initiating LIF research in the field of reproductive health and will be supplied by Amrad with LIF. Amrad is developing the same protein for neuromuscular diseases under the name AM424. The agreement includes total payments to Amrad of up to US$16 million, as well as royalties.

• BioTransplant Inc., of Charlestown, Mass., and the Massachusetts General Hospital, of Boston, said scientific advances in organ transplantation and immunocompetency may hold promise for the treatment of several diseases. Results published in the December issue of Transplantation demonstrated successful reconstruction of the immune system in a large animal following a functional thymic graft and tolerance to a foreign organ graft. In another study published in The Journal of Immunology, scientists described advances in thymic grafting that induced tolerance of human T-cells to porcine tissues and restored immune system competency in immunodeficient mice.

• Cel-Sci Corp., of Vienna, Va., and Hassan Azzazy of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have been selected to receive a Phase II Maryland Industrial Partnership grant for the potential development of a vaccine against tuberculosis. The award follows on the heels of promising results seen during the first phase of the work.

• Chimeric Therapies Inc., of Laguna Niguel, Calif., said it received regulatory clearance to being clinical testing of its graft engineering technology in high-risk patients with sickle cell disease. The approach to be explored by Chimeric will use bone marrow donated from family members of the sickle cell patient with minimal conditioning to the recipient.

• Cytoclonal Pharmaceutics Inc., of Dallas, said it is developing several active lead compounds to inhibit rhinoviruses, the most frequent cause of the common cold. One class of compound showed minimum toxicity in animal studies.

• CytoTherapeutics Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., said George Dunbar Jr. will become acting president and CEO of the company, succeeding Richard Rose, who has been president and CEO since 1997. Since November, Dunbar has been acting president of StemCells Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary of CytoTherapeutics.

• Elan Corp., of Dublin, Ireland, entered into a research, development and license agreement with American Home Products Corp., of Madison, N.J., and its research arm, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, of Radnor, Pa., in small-molecule cell-adhesion molecule Alpha4Beta1 integrin inhibitors. Elan has received an initial payment and could receive additional fees and milestone payments, plus royalties on future product sales. Elan may opt to co-promote these products for a share of profits.

• EntreMed Inc., of Rockville, Md., said it received notification from the FDA granting permission for the commencement of Phase I testing of Angiostatin, its cancer drug, in humans. EntreMed's investigational new drug application was submitted to the FDA in December.

• Incara Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said it was notified by the Nasdaq National Market that the company has been found in compliance with all requirements for continued listing. As a result, the company's hearing to determine listing compliance will not take place and the hearing file will be closed.

• Interleukin Genetics Inc., of San Antonio, said it closed on a $5 million private placement of 832,667 shares of common stock. Fine Equities, of New York, acted as placement agent for the offering. The company also said data confirms its genetic markers significantly increase the risk for heart disease even in individuals who do not have high cholesterol. The data will be presented at the Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Second International Conference on Cardiovascular Genomics in Miami.

• Neurobiological Technologies Inc., of Richmond, Calif., said patient enrollment has been completed in a double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase II trial of Memantine for AIDS-related dementia. The trial is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. The company expects results of the trial will be reported in mid-year 2000.

• NeuroLogic Inc., of Rockville, Md., said the FDA agreed with the proposed clinical protocol to conduct clinical trials of the company's Alzheimer's disease diagnostic test.

• NPS Allelix Corp., of Salt Lake City, a subsidiary of NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc., designed and conducted bone growth studies on the space shuttle Discovery in collaboration with NASA scientists and astronauts. The results demonstrated that normal osteoblasts, the cells responsible for bone growth, were able to produce new bone within the microgravity environment of space, and NPS's potential anti-osteoporosis drug, ALX 1-11, was shown to enhance this growth by 68 percent.

• PathoGenesis Corp., of Seattle, formed a French company, PathoGenesis France SARL, to be based in Paris. The new company will market TOBI (tobramycin solution for inhalation) to treat cystic fibrosis in France upon the drug's approval in that country.

• Procept Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said shareholders of both Procept and Heaven's Door Corp., of Coral Springs, Fla., approved the proposed merger, which was completed Jan. 28. The new company will be known as HeavenlyDoor.com Inc., of which Heaven's Door Corp. is now a subsidiary. The merger was first announced in September. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 17, 1999, p. 1.)

• Scios Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., said it came to an agreement with Randal Kirk, a major shareholder, which enables the company to move forward with its business strategy, expanding the board of directors, if elected by stockholders. Under the agreement, which ends Kirk's proxy solicitation to elect a new slate of directors, Kirk will be added to the slate of candidates nominated by the Scios board at the annual stockholder meeting on Feb. 28. In turn, Kirk and certain entities he controls, which own about 5.2 percent of Scios' outstanding shares, will vote in favor of the board's nominees.

• Sepracor Inc., of Marlborough, Mass., initiated a Phase I trial on (+)-desmethylsibutramine (DMS) and plans to begin clinical studies on multiple indications for central nervous system disorders in the second half of 2000. Preclinical studies indicate that (+)-DMS is a potent serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor.

• Xoma Ltd., of Berkeley, Calif., said its shareholders approved the authorization of 65 million additional common shares. They were not asked to and did not approve any particular issuance of shares. The authorization of additional shares gives the company greater flexibility for future collaborative relationships or equity financings, said Jack Castello, chairman, president and CEO of Xoma.