• As a result of its voluntary conditional public purchase offer to shareholders, Trans Nova Investments Ltd. has received nearly 152.5 million shares, or 31.3 percent, of Affitech A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark. Trans Nova expects to complete the offer April 4. Trans Nova said it intends to seek a substantial restructuring of Affitech, keeping only essential research activities. It also will seek to delist Affitech (AFFTY) from Nasdaq OMX.

• Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (AMT), of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, reported that shareholders have approved all the resolutions proposed for a corporate restructuring and financing transaction, which will result in the assets and certain liabilities being acquired by a newly formed private company, uniQure BV. The AMT legal entity will be liquidated. Completion of the transaction is expected in early April. AMT suffered a massive blow when the European Medicines Agency in October 2011 did not approve Glybera (alipogene tiparvovec), a gene therapy for the ultra-rare disease, lipoprotein lipase deficiency.

• Durect Corp., of Cupertino, Calif., said Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., which licensed North American rights to Posidur (SABER-Bupivacaine) in a potential $212.5 million deal in 2010, has decided to end the collaboration, returning rights to the postoperative pain relief depot. The product missed its endpoint earlier this year in the Phase III BESST trial in patients undergoing a variety of abdominal surgical procedures. Durect said it will continue to prepare integrated safety and efficacy reports ahead of a pre-new drug application meeting with the FDA, anticipated to occur this summer. In January, the company's European partner, Nycomed A/S, of Zurich, Switzerland, (now part of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.) gave notice that it would be handing back Posidur rights overseas. (See BioWorld Today, June 9, 2010.)

• Hunter Immunology Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, said it completed its merger with ASX-listed company Probiomics Ltd., of Gordon, Australia. The merged entity, which will be renamed Bioxyne and will focus on a midstage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease candidate, is due to relist on the Australian exchange on April 4.

• Kymab Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, presented preclinical data from its next-generation human therapeutic antibody platform showing that a complement of variable regions from the human immunoglobulin heavy chain, kappa and lambda light chains, was successfully established in mouse strains using ES cell-targeted insertion technology. Kymab said that results in human-like functionality and usage and provides the genetic basis for the company's first commercial strains, Kymouse HK and Kymouse HL.

• MediGene AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said its genital warts treatment, Veregen, gained marketing approval in Switzerland. The company's partner, Abbott, of Abbott Park, Ill., is set to launch the topical product upon conclusion of the reimbursable price-fixing procedure by Swissmedic. Veregen contains a concentrate of catechins with a complex defined composition extracted from green tea leaves.

• Myrexis Inc., of Salt Lake City, adopted a three-year tax benefits preservation rights plan designed to help protect and preserve about $107 million in net operating loss carryforwards and research tax credits. The plan is intended to reduce the likelihood of an unintended 50 percent "ownership change," which would limit the company's ability to use the $107 million to offset future tax liabilities. As part of the plan, Myrexis' board declared a dividend of one preferred share purchase right for each share of common stock outstanding as of April 9.

• Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, said its researchers found cancer-causing mutations in the PMS2 gene in 14 percent of patients with personal and family histories suggestive of Lynch syndrome, a hereditary form of colon cancer. The study, which concluded that comprehensive diagnostic testing for Lynch syndrome should include the PMS2 gene, was presented at the 2012 American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting.

• Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Francisco, said Royalty Pharma agreed to pay the company $25 million, under certain circumstances related to the successful development of lead candidate vosaroxin, to acquire a royalty on future worldwide sales of the acute myeloid leukemia drug. Vosaroxin is in Phase III testing in patients with first relapsed or refractory disease, with an interim analysis expected in the third quarter. Under the terms, Royalty Pharma agreed to invest the $25 million immediately following that interim analysis if either the study stops for efficacy or the trial's one-time sample size increase is being implemented. If the Phase III study, dubbed VALOR, proceeds to its planned 450 patient enrollment, Royalty Pharma has the option to make a $25 million investment upon the unblinding of the study in exchange for a percentage of future net sales. Shares of Sunesis (NASDAQ:SNSS) gained 39 cents, or 15.7 percent, to close Friday at $2.87.

• Telik Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., reported a 1-for-30 reverse split of its common stock. Telik's common stock will begin trading on a post-split basis on the Nasdaq Capital Market on April 2. The split is expected to enable the company to meet the $1 minimum bid price required for continued listing on the Nasdaq. Telik also is realigning spending priorities, focusing on the clinical development of its lead product candidate, Telintra, and reducing annual operating expenses by approximately $2.5 million over the company's February guidance of $12 million to $13 million for 2012. Telik's stock (NASDAQ:TELK) closed down 12.5 percent to 14 cents on Friday.

• Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, received orphan drug designation in the U.S. for TH-302, a hypoxia-targeted drug aimed at soft tissue sarcoma. The drug, which received orphan drug designation in Europe last month, is in a pivotal Phase III trial that is comparing it in combination with doxorubicin against doxorubicin alone. The trial is being conducted under a special protocol assessment with a primary endpoint of overall survival.