• Ablynx NV, of Ghent, Belgium, initiated preclinical development of next-generation anti-IgE Nanobody ALX-0962 in severe allergic asthma. ALX-0962 consists of a potent anti-IgE Nanobody with a dual mode of action – the ability to bind with high affinity to IgE while also displacing receptor-bound IgE – together with a serum albumin binding Nanobody for in vivo plasma half-life extension.

• AmorChem, of Montreal, and InflammatorRx Inc., of Quebec City, said they launched a research collaboration in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The collaboration targets S100A9, a protein playing a key role in inflammation. Early data showed that blocking S100A9 with an antibody can produce a significant effect on the inflammatory response without influencing the ability of the host to respond to infections. Terms of the deal were not closed.

• Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said partner Eisai Inc., of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., will be able to launch obesity drug Belviq (lorcaserin) next month, following completion of a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) review that deemed the drug as a Schedule IV substance. The scheduling designation will be effective 30 days after Wednesday's publication in the Federal Register. Completion of the DEA review is a relief for the firm and its investors, who have been waiting for the drug to launch since it gained approval last June. In its earnings call last week, Arena's president and CEO, Jack Lief, noted the company's disappointment with the delay, but said partner Eisai had used the time to "hone their launch readiness and to further pursue their reimbursement strategy" so that both firms are "ready to go." Under the terms of its collaboration with Eisai, Arena will be entitled to $65 million in milestone payments related to launch and commercialization. Shares of Arena (NASDAQ:ARNA) jumped 82 cents, or 10.9 percent, Tuesday to close at $8.34. (See BioWorld Today, June 28, 2012, and May 6, 2013.)

• Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., said the FDA granted the antibiotic candidate ceftolozane/tazobactam (CXA-201) fast-track status in hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia/ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia and complicated urinary tract infections. The FDA granted fast-track status for ceftolozane/tazobactam in complicated intra-abdominal infections in February.

• DBV Technologies, of Bangeux, France, partnered with Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for research in epicutaneous immunotherapy (EPIT) related to the mechanism by which using Viaskin leads to improve immune tolerance to food antigens. The project will be carried out over 18 months, with the objective of determining efficacy of EPIT in food-induced gastrointestinal allergies. The first study will evaluate EPIT for food-induced anaphylaxis in mice, compared to oral immunotherapy. A second study will address tolerance induction.

• GW Pharmaceuticals plc, of Porton Down, UK, received commercial approval for lead cannabinoid product Sativex in Italy for moderate to severe spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients who have not responded adequately to other anti-spasticity medications. The event triggered a €250,000 (US$32,104) milestone payment to GW from its commercial partner Almirall SA, of Barcelona, Spain.

• Okairos AG, of Basel, Switzerland, along with Aeras, in Rockville, Md., a nonprofit biotech advancing tuberculosis vaccines, and the UK-based University of Oxford disclosed a $2.9 million grant to Aeras in support of a collaboration among the three parties to support the development of vaccines against tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.

• Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., of Haifa, Israel, identified a first clinical indication for its Placental eXpanded (PLX) RAD cells: to enhance engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in patients experiencing delays or failure of their bone marrow transplants. Pluristem said about 15 percent of the 25,000 allogeneic bone marrow transplants worldwide will either have a delay or failure to engraft the HSCs, and PLX-RAD may be beneficial to those patients. PLX-RAD cells have been shown to have an immunomodulatory effect through secretion of cytokines and proteins that stimulate HSCs to enhance production of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. In animal studies, there was significant improvement of recovery of those three blood lineages compared to control subjects.

• Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp., of Novato, Calif., licensed pending patents related to the use of cysteamine for the treatment of Rett syndrome and associated disorders of methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2). Under terms of the agreement, Raptor receives exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize cysteamine and related compounds to treat MECP2-associated disorders. Raptor's license agreement is with the Technology Transfer Accelerator of South Eastern France, which represents the French medical research organizations where the technology was invented.

• VistaGen Therapeutics Inc., of South San Francisco, said its human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes were used by collaboration partner Duke University to grow three-dimensional (3D) human heart muscle. Duke researchers combined VistaGen's human stem cell-derived heart cells with tissue engineering and cardiac electrophysiology technologies to grow what they described as a "heart patch," which mimics the natural functions of native human heart tissue. The technology is being developed to aid in understanding the biology critical to cardiac tissue engineering, for applications in regenerative cell therapy for heart disease and for predictive use in vitro assays for drug rescue and development. The research was published online in Biomaterials.