Argonaut Technologies, of San Carlos, Calif., said Lonza Group, of Switzerland, selected Argonaut's parallel synthesis instrumentation for the high-throughput discovery and development of new biocide compounds. Lonza installed both the Trident system for library synthesis and the Surveyor system for chemistry development and process research.
AtheroGenics Inc., of Atlanta, said it updated its registration statement with the SEC and plans to raise about $72 million through an initial public offering of 6 million shares of common stock at $11 to $13 per share. Chase H&Q, of New York, will be the lead underwriter. Robertson Stephens, of San Francisco; Adams Harkness and Hill Inc., of Boston; and A.G. Edwards & Sons, of St. Louis, will co-manage the offering. The underwriters have the option to purchase up to 900,000 additional shares to cover overallotments. In February, AtheroGenics announced plans to raise $100 million in the IPO. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 29, 2000, p. 1.)
AVI BioPharma Inc., of Portland, Ore., said that in a study published in Antisense & Nucleic Acid Drug Development scientists reported that Neugene antisense compound decreased cell proliferation. Scientists found that oligomers directed against c-myc - a gene involved in cell proliferation disorders such as cancer and cardiovascular disease - were the most effective in halting cell growth.
Celera Genomics, of Rockville, Md., and American Home Products Corp. (AHP), of Madison, N.J., entered into an agreement that includes a subscription to all of Celera's database products. Celera also granted AHP an option to obtain a non-exclusive license to certain other Celera intellectual property.
Eos Biotechnology Inc., of South San Francisco, said it identified several genes linked to breast cancer based on the full working draft of the human genome. The company said its approach involved selecting out the human genome data, then using the information to design a set of custom GeneChip Expression Arrays, produced by Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif. Eos then used the GeneChips to compare gene activity in breast cancer tissues to that in normal healthy tissues. It found several new, specific genes to be more active in the cancer tissue than in the healthy cells.
GeneFormatics Inc., of San Diego, said it entered into an alliance research agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of Madison, N.J., to identify novel therapeutic targets. GeneFormatics will apply its Fuzzy Functional Form technology to proprietary gene sequences in order to elucidate the function of encoded proteins. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Glaxo Wellcome Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said the FDA approved Malarone (atovaquone and proguanil hydrochloride) for the prevention and treatment of malaria in adults and children. The drug will be available in pharmacies in mid-August. Malarone is the first new treatment for malaria discovered and developed by a pharmaceutical company in more than 40 years, the company said.
Incyte Genomics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and American Home Products Corp. (AHP), of Madison, N.J., formed a partnership in which AHP will gain commercial access to Incyte's suite of gene sequence databases, including the LifeSeq Gold database, for use in drug discovery and development. Incyte also will provide AHP with access to its ZooSeq animal model database and the PathoSeq microbial sequence database. Incyte could receive milestone payments and royalties on sales. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Ixion Biotechnology, of Alachua, Fla., said Qvestor LLC, a U.S. subsidiary of Uppsala, Sweden-based Q-Med AB, purchased 3.34 million shares of Ixion stock for US$6.68 million and other consideration. Q-Med already has purchased 562,500 Ixion shares at $2 per share since April 1999. Under the April agreement, Q-Med had an option to acquire up to 50 percent of Ixion's common stock, and the Q-Med board decided to exercise the option. Following the closing, Qvestor and Q-Med will own 59 percent of Ixion's outstanding common stock. Ixion said the transaction will provide funds for two years of expanded operations.
Molecular Devices Corp., of Sunnyvale, Calif., and LJL BioSystems Inc., also of Sunnyvale, said they scheduled stockholder meetings for Aug. 30 to vote upon matters related to the merger agreement entered into between the companies in June. (See BioWorld Today, June 9, 2000, p. 1.)
NewBiotics Inc., of San Diego, said laboratory tests of its NB2001 drug candidate show the drug design causes resistant bacteria associated with hospital-acquired infections to self-destruct. NB2001 was shown to be 30 times more potent than ampicillin in inhibiting the growth of the non-resistant bacteria and dramatically more effective against ampicillin-resistant bacteria and Augmentin-resistant bacteria.
Nexell Therapeutics Inc., of Irvine, Calif., said its ticker symbol on the Nasdaq National Market has changed from NEXLD to NEXL.
Origen Therapeutics Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., said it received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health to support research and development of early-stage less-differentiated chicken embryos for the establishment of chicken embryonic stem cell cultures. The grant provides about $100,000 to the company over six months.
PE Biosystems Group, of Foster City, Calif., said it now will conduct business under the name Applied Biosystems Group. The company plans to seek stockholder approval of the name change at the annual meeting in October. PE's current Applied Biosystems division now will operate under the name Molecular Biology. The change was made because the Applied Biosystems name is well known in the life science industry, the company said.
Pharmacopeia Inc., of Princeton, N.J., said it successfully identified active compounds in its lead discovery services program for Roche Bioscience, of Basel, Switzerland, resulting in an undisclosed milestone payment to Pharmacopeia. Pharmacopeia screened its large internal sample collection against a Roche Bioscience target in the area of neurobiology research. Roche has a license to the active compounds identified by Pharmacopeia.
Trankaryotic Therapies Inc. (TKT), of Cambridge, Mass., said it formed TKT Europe-5S AB, headquartered in Sweden, to provide health care services, marketing and distribution for TKT's Niche Protein products in Europe. Bo Ahlstrand, formerly senior vice president of sales and marketing at Bridgewater, N.J.-based Pharmacia & Upjohn, will serve as CEO of TKT Europe. TKT also said Replagal was recommended for orphan drug designation in Europe as a treatment for Fabry disease.
Tularik Inc., of San Francisco, said it initiated Phase II efficacy and Phase I combination studies for its anticancer compound T64 (lometrexol). T64 is in a class of drugs called antifolates, which are validated for the treatment of cancer. Phase II studies will be conducted in the U.S., UK and Australia and will include patients with soft-tissue sarcoma, melanoma, breast cancer, non-small-cell lung cancer and head and neck cancer. In Phase I combination studies, T64 is being evaluated in the U.S., UK and the Netherlands with various chemotherapeutics.
Vysis Inc., of Downers Grove, Ill., said it received the inaugural Technology Application Transfer Award in June at the 25th Annual Association of Genetic Technologists meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz. The award was for a product presentation showcasing Vysis' genomic microarray technology titled "Detection of Gene Copy Number Changes Using Genomic Microarrays."