• Gentium SpA, of Villa Guardia, Italy, said it received the list of questions from the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in response to its marketing application for defibrotide to treat and prevent hepatic veno-occlusive disease in adults and children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation therapy. Gentium said it anticipated submitting the responses to the questions by the end of December 2011. In the U.S., defibrotide suffered a setback in August 2011 when the FDA raised several issues with the company's new drug application (NDA). Gentium decided to withdraw the NDA and is working with the agency to address the outstanding concerns. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 19, 2011.)

• OPKO Health Inc., of Miami, said it completed the acquisition of FineTech Pharmaceutical Ltd., of Haifa, Israel, which develops active pharmaceutical ingredients. OPKO plans to use FineTech's expertise to help develop its pipeline of peptoids and other molecules for diagnostic and therapeutic products. Financial terms were not disclosed.