• 3SBio Inc., of China, saw its shares fall Thursday despite reporting net income of $2.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2007, an increase of 152.2 percent compared with the same quarter in 2006, and net revenues of $6.3 million, an increase of 30 percent. The company reported earnings of 11 cents per American Depository Share, compared to expectations closer to 13 cents per share. The company said net revenue from its flagship injectable recombinant human erythropoietin products marketed under its EPIAO brand increased 14.7 percent to $4.1 million over the fourth quarter. In addition, net revenue from its protein-based therapeutic recombinant human thrombopoietin products marketed under its TPIAO brand increased 99.3 percent to $1.6 million. 3SBio's shares (NASDAQ:SSRX) plummeted 28.3 percent Thursday, or $3.31, to close at $8.39.

• Ablynx NV, of Ghent, Belgium, said it has received an undisclosed milestone payment from Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, for an exclusive research license under an ongoing research and development collaboration to discover and develop therapeutic Nanobodies targeting numerous diseases that are difficult to address with conventional antibodies and their fragments. Under the agreement, Ablynx receives up-front fees, license fees and funding for research and development. In addition, the firm is eligible for milestone payments and royalties when products achieve commercialization. Novartis has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the Nanobody products resulting from the partnership. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Acambis plc, of Cambridge, UK, said it started preclinical trials of a herpes vaccine licensed from Harvard University, and aims to submit an investigational new drug application in 2009. The vaccine is an HSV-2 strain from which two genes have been deleted, making the virus incapable of replication or of establishing latent infection.

• Addex Pharmaceuticals, of Geneva, Switzerland, said it has achieved its first preclinical milestone in a Parkinson's disease collaboration and license agreement with Merck & Co., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., through its affiliate Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Ltd. The collaboration is focused on developing an emerging class of oral drugs, allosteric modulators, that target the metabotropic glutamate receptor 4 (mGluR4) for Parkinson's disease and other undisclosed indications. Addex will receive $250,000 for achieving the first preclinical milestone. Additional milestones of up to $61 million would be payable if a second and third product is developed. Merck is responsible for clinical development.

• Affimed Therapeutics AG, of Heidelberg, Germany, closed a €5 million (US$7.3 million) second tranche of its Series B financing. Last spring, the company raised €25 million in the first tranche of the round to fund its TandAb tetravalent antibody programs in Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The second tranche of funding was provided by Novo Nordisk Biotech Fund. Affimed also added Thomas Hecht, Joerg Neermann and Richard Stead to its board of directors.

• Bionomics Ltd., of Adelaide, Australia, said it successfully completed preclinical testing on the first of eight proteins licensed to Copenhagen, Denmark-based Genmab A/S, triggering a $1 million milestone payment. Under the agreement, which was executed in February 2006, Genmab acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to eight proteins identified and characterized by Bionomics using its proprietary Angene angiogenesis platform. Bionomics received an up-front fee, and the $1 million is the first in a series of potential milestone payments upon achieving specified preclinical and clinical milestones. Bionomics also will receive milestone payments and royalties on product sales for each product reaching the market.

• Biota Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, will begin an on-market buy-back of up to 5 percent of its ordinary shares. The buy-back is expected to begin in two weeks following the normal regulatory notification process. The buy-back is part of Biota's capital management strategy given its strong cash position. Taylor Collison Ltd. has been appointed to act as broker for the on-market buyback.

• Epigenomics AG, of Berlin, signed a nonexclusive licensing deal for its DNA methylation biomarker Septin 9 with Quest Diagnostics Inc., of Madison, N.J. Under the terms, Quest gains rights to use the biomarker to develop a molecular-based laboratory test aimed at helping physicians detect colorectal cancer based on a patient's blood specimen and can act as a supplement to conventional methods of colorectal cancer screening, including colonoscopy and fecal occult blood tests. In return, Epigenomics receives up-front and milestone payments, plus royalties on sales of tests developed using Septin 9.

• Esbatech AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, said it has achieved high concentrations of its antibody fragments in all segments of the eye with topical delivery via eye drops. Those data were confirmed in several independent preclinical in vivo tests. Anticipated therapeutic concentrations of the antibody fragments were observed in the anterior chamber and in the posterior segments including vitreous humour, retina and choroid. Esbatech's lead antibody fragment ESBA105 is a TNFa antagonist that is scheduled to enter clinical development later in 2008.

• Global Media Networks Inc., of Praekasa Mueng, Thailand, said it has signed a definitive agreement to be taken over by Israel-based biotech firm Biocure Med Inc. Global Media said it formerly was a corporation with interests in the publishing, encoding, streaming and telecommunications industry. New management and board members will be officially elected as soon as the name change becomes effective.

• Heptares Therapeutics Ltd., of London, said seed investor MVM Life Sciences Partners LLP contributed an undisclosed amount of additional seed funding to the company. Heptares was spun out of the UK's Medical Research Council last fall to focus on G protein-couple receptors (GPCRs). The additional funding was triggered by progress made using Heptares' GPCR-stabilization platform to solve the structure of the beta-1 adrenergic receptor.

• Ipsen SA, of Paris, said the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use provided a positive opinion for Adenuric (febuxostat) 80-mg and 120-mg tablets in chronic hyperuricemia in gout, recommending it for marketing authorization. That opinion will be forwarded to the European Commission for final approval, which typically occurs within 60 days to 90 days. Febuxostat, an oral, once-daily nonpurine selective inhibitor of xanthine oxidase, was licensed to Ipsen in Europe from Tokyo-based Teijin Pharma Ltd.

• Kamada Ltd., of Ness Ziona, Israel, signed two development agreements with PARI Pharma GmbH, of Munich, Germany, including one for the joint clinical development of aerosolized AAT in cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis, in addition to alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Under the terms, PARI granted Kamada an exclusive license to use an optimized eFlow Electronic Nebulizer to deliver AAT in clinical trials. The second deal involved a long-term supply agreement for eFlow for the marketing, distribution and commercialization of AAT, pending successful development. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Lab21, of Cambridge, UK, said it has obtained a license from Celera, of Alameda, Calif., to access its test for cirrhosis risk in patients with chronic hepatitis C viral infection in the UK and Ireland. The test, known as CRS7, is the first clinical test capable of predicting the likelihood of an HCV patient's risk of progressing to liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.

• MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried-Planegg, Germany, and Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, said they are extending their March 2007 collaboration until March 2012 under which Astellas has access to MorphoSys' proprietary antibody library HuCAL Gold at its research site in Tsukuba, Japan. The extension includes an option for Astellas to develop and commercialize HuCAL-derived therapeutic antibodies, in which case MorphoSys would receive exclusive license fees, milestone payments and royalties. Under the extended agreement, MorphoSys continues to receive annual user fees for access to its HuCAL platform. Further financial details were not disclosed.

• NextGen Bioscience Inc., of London, has entered into collaboration negotiations with Warburg Glycomed GmbH, of Erkrath-Unterfeldhaus, Germany, which has developed a new class of drugs, which has shown potent anticancer properties in animal models. Warburg Glycomed has a patent-protected compound that is able to reprogram cancer cells by modulating their aerobic glucose metabolism, which affects their ability to grow. In other news, NextGen signed a letter of intent with SymbioTec GmbH, of Saarbrücken, Germany, to enter a collaboration based on SymbioTec's cancer drug Oncohist. Oncohist is a genetically engineered derivative of a protein within the innate immune system that selectively targets cancer cells. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Novozymes, of Nottingham, UK, has extended its collaboration with Upperton Ltd., also of Nottingham, for commercial exploitation of the jointly owned rP-nano technology, a highly targeted drug delivery system, which uses the natural binding properties of recombinant protein nanoparticles to enhance drug and gene bioavailability. Under the terms of the agreement, Upperton will use rP-nano technology to generate nanoparticles from recombinant proteins expressed in Novozymes' yeast-based expression system. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Population Genetics Technologies Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, raised £3.8 million (US$7.4 million) in a Series A financing. Investors included Auriga Partners, Noble Fund Managers and Compass Genetics Investors LLC. Proceeds will be used to advance methods for studying population genetics without separately sequencing every individual genome in the population, a concept proposed by Sydney Brenner, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002. The company also appointed Mel Kronick, formerly of Agilent Technologies Inc. and Applied Biosystems, as CEO.

• pSivida Ltd., of Perth, Australia, said it has received $500,000 as the first quarterly research and development payment from New York-based Pfizer Inc., under terms of an exclusive worldwide collaborative research and license agreement signed in April 2007 for pSivida's ophthalmic applications of the Medidur technology. Over the last 10 months, pSivida has received $12 million from Pfizer, including equity investments, under terms of that agreement and will receive up to an additional $153.5 million in development and sales-related milestones. Pfizer is the largest shareholder in the company, holding about 10 percent of the outstanding shares.

• Solagran Ltd., of Sidney, Australia, has advanced another step toward obtaining manufacturing licenses for both the prescription pharmaceutical Ropren and its active ingredient Bioeffective R. The Scientific Centre for the Examination of Substances for Medicinal Use in Moscow has confirmed that both substances conform to their requirements and have been released from preliminary control. Ropren is a natural hepatoprotector, which will be used to treat chronic liver disease, including hepatitis and cirrhosis. The company said it next will pursue approval in the European Union.

• Summit Corp. plc, of Oxford, UK, said its specialist carbohydrate chemistry subsidiary business Dextra Laboratories has signed service contracts with four undisclosed biotechnology firm worth an initial £500,000 (US$981,615), with the value of the deals potentially reaching more than £1 million over the next six months.