• Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said its board amended its rights plan to entitle each rights holder to purchase $490 worth of newly issued shares of common stock of Cubist at a price equal to 50 percent of the current market price.

• Cyclacel Ltd., of Dundee, UK, established Polgen, a wholly owned unit located in Cambridge, UK, engaged in the study of new cancer genes involved in mitosis or cell division. Polgen genes are targets for discovering innovative cancer drugs. They appear to be effective in controlling cell division in cancer cells.

• Cypress Bioscience Inc., of San Diego, said Medexus Inc., of Toronto, received approval to market the Prosorba column in Canada for rheumatoid arthritis. Medexus anticipates launching the product in the second quarter.

• Dynavax Technologies Corp., of San Diego, said a Phase I open-label study of AIC, its proprietary conjugate of purified ragweed allergen to an immunostimulatory polynucleotide DNA sequence, showed the skin test allergic response to AIC was significantly less than that of the licensed ragweed extract. The skin test allergic response is a quantitative determination of local erythema and swelling induced by a known amount of allergen.

• IBC Pharmaceuticals LLC, of Morris Plains, N.J., said the FDA granted orphan drug designation for its lead product, Pentacea, for the treatment of small-cell-lung cancer.

• Immtech International Inc., of Vernon Hills, Ill., said it scaled up its lead compound, DB-289, for preclinical studies. DB-289 is targeted to treat fungal disease Pneumocystis Carinii pneumonia, which is often deadly to the immune-suppressed patient.

• Magainin Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., said new preclinical data shows that interleukin-9 potentiates human eosinophil function by increasing their survival, and, by inducing the IL-5 receptor expression on eosinophils, enhances eosinophil differentiation. Eosinophils are one of the critical inflammatory cells involved in the asthmatic response.

• Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, entered into an exclusive marketing agreement with Scotland-based Rosgen Ltd. to introduce the BRACAnalysis molecular diagnostic test to women across the UK and Ireland who may be at risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The five-year agreement includes an up-front license fee payment to Myriad, plus performance milestones and royalty payments.