• Argenta Discovery Ltd., of Harlow, UK, a Galapagos NV company, said it extended its drug discovery agreement with Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, a member of the Roche Group, for three years. It’s the fourth extension since the deal was first disclosed in December 2005. The agreement covers a portfolio of projects using Argenta’s drug discovery expertise to discover new chemical entities acting against undisclosed drug targets defined by Genentech. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Bexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Covington, Ky., was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research Bridge Award by the National Cancer Institute. The award of $2.9 million over three years will help Bexion further its clinical development of BXQ-350, a proteo-lipid nanovesicle intended for use as an anti-cancer agent. The funding will enable Bexion to complete a Phase I first-in-human trial.

• Bioinvent International AB, of Lund, Sweden, signed an extension to its 2008 license agreement with Bayer Pharma AG, of Leverkusen, Germany, for the development of antibodies from BioInvent’s N-coder libraries. Under the terms of the extension, Bayer will broaden its access to Bioinvent’s discovery and development technology platform. Bioinvent will receive an undisclosed license fee to cover new projects plus success-based milestone payments and royalties on products already in development. (See BioWorld Today, March 19, 2008.)

• Cellceutix Corp., of Beverly, Mass., completed documentation to begin a Phase IIb dose-optimization study of brilacidin as a candidate to treat acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) following guidance from the FDA. The trial will include single-dose and three-day dosing regimens using brilacidin to treat ABSSSI caused by Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes. The trial is expected to begin in January 2014, and the company is exploring accelerated approval with the FDA. (See BioWorld Today, April 22, 2013.)

• D-Pharm Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, said an investigators meeting was set for later this month to discuss the clinical protocol for the first feasibility study to test DP-b99 in patients with acute high-risk inflammation of the pancreas. DP-b99 is designed to modulate the activity of a range of metal-dependent enzymes involved in the cell death cascade and inflammation, and results from in vitro and in vivo studies suggested that the compound can suppress some severe detrimental processes associated with the disease.

• Dual Therapeutics LLC, of Cleveland, was formed by drug development accelerator Biomotiv LLC, of Cleveland, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to develop therapeutics for prostate and lung cancer and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The company is based on intellectual property exclusively licensed from the Icahn School of Medicine, where lead inventors Michael Ohlmeyer, associate professor of structural and chemical biology, and Goutham Narla, adjunct assistant professor of medicine, hematology and medical oncology, are pursuing small-molecule modulation of a key tumor suppressor enzyme, resulting in simultaneous blockade of two cancer signaling pathways. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 9, 2013.)

• Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, a unit of Roche AG, said it will invest more than $285 million for the expansion of its biologics manufacturing facilities in Vacaville, Calif., and Oceanside, Calif., adding 250 more jobs over the next four years, bringing the total number of Genentech manufacturing jobs in California to almost 3,000. The company employs about 10,000 people in the state.

• Mannkind Corp., of Valencia, Calif., said it resubmitted a new drug application for inhaled insulin product Afrezza (insulin human [rDNA origin]) with an indication to improve glycemic control in adults with Type I or Type II diabetes. The resubmission is based on the entire dataset from the Afrezza clinical development program and particularly the positive results from two recent Phase III trials, one in patients with Type I diabetes and one in patients with Type II, aimed at proving the efficacy of the firm’s second-generation Dreamboat delivery device. Shortly after reporting positive data from those trials, Mannkind purchased a second $40 million tranche of 9.75 percent senior secured convertible notes. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 15, 2013.)

• Pledpharma AB, of Stockholm, said results from the Manami study showed its Pled substance, based on mangafodipir, was well tolerated by patients in the study and can be given to patients suffering from serious heart disease without any side effects. Despite the study’s limited size, a tendency toward clinical effect was seen. In the study, patients were pre-treated with PLED- substance before percutaneous coronary intervention.

• Roslin Cells, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Sistemic, of Glasgow, Scotland, said they are going to work together with Scottish Development International to make the process of conducting clinical trials in cell therapy easier and faster. This will involve bringing together Scottish organizations such as Health Sciences Scotland, NHS Research Scotland, NHS Scotland and technology-based industrial partners. Roslin Cells provides GMP manufacturing services for cell therapy products and mammalian cell banks for clinical use. It also provides a range of pluripotent stem cells for clinical use and research customers. Sistemic is involved in microRNA-based problem-solving services and offers an extensive suite of tools for the cell therapy community.

• Starpharma Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, reported additional positive results for its dendrimer-enhanced oxaliplatin (DEO) in reducing neurotoxicity associated with oxaliplatin. In a blinded study, Starpharma’s DEO showed reduced neurotoxicity in validated animal models for two common forms of peripheral neuropathy. Both neuropathies were reduced with DEO compared to oxaliplatin alone, even when DEO was used at twice the dose of oxaliplatin. The company reported in September that it was advancing DEO derivatives into development, after DEO improved anti-cancer efficacy and resulted in reduced bone marrow toxicity compared to Eloxatin (oxaliplatin injection) in a mouse model of colon cancer.