• Adolor Corp., of Exton, Pa., said it plans to publicly offer 6 million common shares under a shelf registration statement. For the three months ended Sept. 30, the company's net loss totaled $13.8 million. Adolor also reported $114.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, as well as about 31.7 million shares outstanding, as of that date. Merrill Lynch & Co. is acting as the offering's lead underwriter, with Lehman Brothers Inc., Pacific Growth Equities LLC, Adams, Harkness & Hill Inc. and First Albany Corp. acting as co-managers. The underwriters also have a 30-day overallotment option to purchase up to an additional 900,000 shares. The company's stock (NASDAQ:ADLR) fell 34 cents Wednesday to close at $18.60.

• Agilent Technologies Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., released its Total RNA Isolation Mini Kit, which uses a pre-filtration column to remove up to 1,000 times more genomic DNA than competing products. Also, the kit does not require the use of DNase enzyme, which is commonly used to remove genomic DNA but can compromise the quality of RNA, it said.

• Alkermes Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., was named in a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of purchasers of its common stock between April 22, 1999, and July 1, 2002. The complaint charges Alkermes and certain of its officers and directors with artificially inflating the price of the company's shares by issuing a series of false and misleading statements about its new drug application for Risperdal Consta. The product was given a not approvable letter in the summer of 2002. (See BioWorld Today, July 2, 2002.)

• Arcturus Engineering Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., and the University of Kansas Medical Center reported at the American Association of Cancer Research's satellite meeting in Phoenix that they have developed new methods to analyze molecular changes in formalin-preserved tissue samples with as few as 100 breast cells from minimally invasive biopsy procedures, such as fine needle aspiration. Their approach combines minimally invasive tissue sampling with ultra-sensitive cell analysis technology called microgenomics. Using tissue samples from 13 high-risk women, the researchers used laser capture microdissection to select 100 to 500 of the most abnormal appearing cells from the thousands of cells in the fine needle aspirate.

• AVI BioPharma Inc., of Portland, Ore., said it plans to sell 7.5 million common shares pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement. For the three months ended June 30, the company's net loss totaled $3.5 million. AVI also reported $30.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term securities, as well as 29.4 million shares outstanding, through that date. The company also plans to grant an overallotment option to the underwriters to purchase up to an additional 1.1 million shares. Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. will be the offering's lead underwriter, with Jefferies & Co. Inc. and First Albany Corp. acting as co-managers. AVI's stock (NASDAQ:AVII) dropped 15 cents Wednesday to close at $4.93.

• Avid Bioservices Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tustin, Calif., said it signed an agreement with an undisclosed biotechnology company to manufacture monoclonal antibodies to be used in upcoming clinical studies. Avid will take the client's cell line from cell bank production through process scale-up to delivery of vialed cGMP-manufactured material. Avid also will provide regulatory support by preparing the chemistry, manufacturing and controls section of the client's investigational new drug application. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Bayer AG, of Leverkusen, Germany, received $300 million from the sale of its 6.6 percent equity stake in Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., to Credit Suisse First Boston, of New York. The shares were purchased in 1998 when Bayer bought about 19.8 million shares of Millennium's stock for about $97 million as part of a research agreement that concludes at the end of this month. Bayer said it would use proceeds to further reduce its net debt.

• Bioenvision Inc., of New York, reported that positive data on its lead cancer drug, clofarabine, was published in Blood, the journal of the American Hematology Society. In the Phase I study, clofarabine showed a 32 percent response rate in pediatric patients with advanced leukemia. The study enrolled 25 children with acute myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia, all of whom were in salvage status. Eight patients responded to clofarabine, with five of those, or 20 percent, having a complete response. Clofarabine is in Phase II trials for pediatric leukemia in the U.S.

• Cangene Corp., of Winnipeg, Manitoba, entered an exclusive agreement in which BioGeneriX AG, of Mannheim, Germany, will market and distribute Cangene's recombinant human growth hormone in Europe. Both parties will jointly pursue European regulatory approval. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Curacyte AG, of Munich, Germany, said its wholly owned subsidiary, Curacyte Chemistry GmbH, of Jena, Germany, was awarded a $1.2 million research and development grant from the German state of Thuringia's Corporate Technology Development program. The grant will fund the lead optimization and preclinical development of the company's orally available small-molecule inhibitors of the blood clotting factor Xa for the treatment of thrombotic disorders.

• Enzo Biochem Inc., of Farmingdale, N.Y., said its subsidiary, Enzo Life Sciences Inc., terminated its deal with Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., and filed a lawsuit against the firm in U.S. District Court alleging breach of agreement. Enzo claims Affymetrix misappropriated Enzo assets, and manufactured and sold Enzo products in violation of the terms of the deal, among other things. Affymetrix said it learned of the lawsuit by way of Enzo's press release, and is prepared to "fully meet all of our customers' needs" through products held in its own inventory. Enzo manufactures various labeling kits recommended for the processing of samples for use with probe arrays in expression analysis applications.

• Genitope Corp., of Redwood City, Calif., added Brean Murray & Co. Inc. to the team of underwriters tabbed for its intended initial public offering. The company, which focuses on developing cancer drugs, filed for its IPO in early August. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 8, 2003.)

• Genzyme Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., entered a strategic partnership with MacroGenics Inc., of Rockville, Md., to develop therapies for immune-mediated diseases, advancing the latter's preclinical program targeting the Fc receptor CD16. The companies will use humanized monoclonal antibodies and soluble receptors aimed at the target, believed to be implicated in disorders, including idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune hemolytic and anemia. Genzyme will make a $5 million equity investment in MacroGenics. Profits from the jointly funded program will be split. Genzyme has sole responsibility for manufacturing and commercializing any products that rise from the deal, with MacroGenics keeping certain co-promotion rights in the U.S.

• Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., reported lower than expected third-quarter earnings, resulting in a double-digit stock slip. For the period ended Sept. 30, the company's net income gained 230 percent over last year's third quarter to $73.1 million, or 33 cents per diluted share. But consensus estimates pegged earnings per share to reach 35 cents. Analysts linked the disparity to lower-than-expected sales figures of the HIV drug Viread, which totaled $59 million, and specifically a greater-than-expected reduction in U.S. wholesaler inventory levels of about $33 million to $37 million, higher than the initial expectation of $25 million to $30 million. A research note from Leerink Swann & Co. said Gilead reported in its conference call that its second-quarter inventory build was probably underestimated. Though the company expects normal U.S. Viread sales growth this quarter, it lowered full-year Viread sales forecasts to range from $550 million to $570 million, down from a previously predicted range of $550 million to $600 million. Gilead's third-quarter revenues reached $200.4 million, a 50 percent gain over last year. The company reported $620.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at the end of the three-month period. Its stock (NASDAQ:GILD) dropped $7.46 Wednesday, or 12.6 percent, to close at $52.

• GPC Biotech AG, of Martinsried, Germany, reported the achievement of several milestones in its five-and-one-half-year alliance with Altana AG, of Bad Homburg, Germany, to build the U.S. Altana Research Institute (ARI) in Waltham, Mass. The milestones include the successful transfer of technologies, as well as research milestones reached under the drug discovery collaborations that are part of the ARI collaboration. The milestones trigger payments totalling $1.5 million to GPC Biotech.

• Iconix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., reported the release of an updated version of DrugMatrix, a chemogenomics reference database and informatics system, offering increased data content and software features designed to enable drug discovery scientists to advance to the clinic compounds with the greatest probability of success. DrugMatrix 2.30 provides information for more than 1,000 drugs.

• Immtech International Inc., of Vernon Hills, Ill., said its majority-owned subsidiary, Immtech Hong Kong Ltd., joined with a subsidiary of China Healthcare Holdings Ltd. to form Immtech Therapeutics Ltd. Immtech Therapeutics will advise healthcare companies seeking access to China to conduct clinical trials or to manufacture and/or distribute pharmaceutical products in China.

• Inproteo, formerly known as the Indiana Proteomics Consortium, said it licensed a patent to Pierce Biotechnology Inc., of Rockford, Ill., for supply of research reagents and products. Inproteo was recently granted a license to U.S. Patent No. 4,569,794, also known as the Smith patent, from Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, with the exclusive right to issue sub-licenses. The Smith patent covers a fusion protein purification technique known as His Tag, which is used in molecular biology research laboratories, particularly those engaged in protein expression and purification.

• InterMune Inc., of Brisbane, Calif., reported the presentation of positive clinical data from an investigator-sponsored trial using Infergen (interferon alfacon-1), the company's bio-optimized Type 1 interferon alpha, in combination with ribavirin for the treatment of patients suffering from hepatitis C who have failed to respond to other interferon and ribavirin combination treatments. In addition, in vitro data were presented that showed synergistic antiviral effects of using Infergen and Actimmune to an in vitro model predictive of antiviral activity against hepatitis C virus. The data were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston.

• MGI Pharma Inc., of Minneapolis, will have its options traded on the Pacific Exchange. Its options will trade on the January expiration cycle, with exercise limits set at 22,500 contracts. The issues will be traded by lead market maker Brian Geary, of D.A. Davidson & Co. The company trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol "MOGN."

• Neurome Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., entered an agreement to use its quantitative neuropathology technologies as part of discovery research efforts at Wyeth, of Madison, N.J. Privately held Neurome will receive research funding from Wyeth, whose related program involves central nervous system disorders. The companies' investigation will begin with an evaluation and morphological analysis of one of Wyeth's transgenic animal models of Alzheimer's disease used to evaluate selected preclinical compounds. Neurome will use its technologies to derive quantitative 3-D information, including volumetric analysis, on these animals. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

• NuGEN Technologies Inc., of San Carlos, Calif., presented data Wednesday on its new Ovation RNA Amplification and Biotin Labeling System optimized for use with Affymetrix GeneChip arrays. The system, based on two of NuGEN's technologies, Ribo-SPIA and a biotin labeling approach, is designed to be reproducible, uses one protocol for all samples and generates microgram quantities of cDNA in less than one day, NuGEN said.

• Oncolytics Biotech Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, entered a clinical trials agreement with the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., to support multiple clinical trials evaluating Reolysin in a range of cancers. Oncolytics and the NCI will collaborate to select cancer indications and suitable development programs for the trials, for which Oncolytics will supply Reolysin.

• Serologicals Corp., of Atlanta, said its research division, Chemicon International Inc., has entered a licensing deal with Molecular Probes Inc., of Eugene, Ore., a subsidiary of Invitrogen Corp., under which Chemicon gets access to a new generation of fluorophores for labeling biologically active molecules. The newly licensed Alexa Fluor and tandem conjugate technologies will extend Chemicon's selection of life science products involved in fluorescent detection of protein targets, Serologicals said. As a part of a package deal, Chemicon has acquired nonexclusive worldwide rights to distribute immunological reagents labeled with Molecular Probes' Alexa Fluor dyes.

• Sonus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bothell, Wash., said the FDA granted fast-track designation for Tocosol Paclitaxel for the treatment of metastatic or locally advanced, inoperable transitional cell carcinoma of the urothelium. The most common form of urothelial TCC is bladder cancer. Tocosol Paclitaxel is a reformulation of paclitaxel and is a ready-to-use formulation.

• SurroMed Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., was awarded a contract from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. SurroMed will apply its integrated biological marker discovery technologies to clinical samples of patients with in-stent restenosis. SurroMed will perform proteomic and metabolic profiling, and NIH investigators will undertake gene expression analysis of the same samples.

• Teva Neuroscience Inc., a unit of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, said 16-month retrospective data published in the November issue of the European Journal of Neurology showed that Copaxone (glatiramer acetate injection) was associated with a significant reduction in relapse rate and a high proportion of relapse-free patients compared to an untreated group. The Argentinean-based observational study evaluated 134 relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients comparing Teva's drug or interferon treatment to a group of untreated patients. A significant fall in the annual relapse rate (compared with pretreatment values) was observed for all four treatments, including reductions of 81 percent in 30 Copaxone patients, 66 percent in 20 Rebif patients, 65 percent in 20 Betaseron patients, 49 percent in 26 Avonex patients and a 31 percent increase in 38 patients with no treatment.