• 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.
• Genstruct Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., entered a master research agreement with New York-based Pfizer Inc. designed to cover current and future collaborations. The first deal under that agreement will be in the area of preclinical drug safety, with an initial focus on a systems biology analysis of underlying mechanisms of drug-induced liver injury. Genstruct and Pfizer have collaborated on multiple programs over the past five years, and Genstruct said the extended agreement provides for the continued application of its systems biology technology to Pfizer's R&D programs for predicting drug toxicities prior to human testing. Financial terms were not disclosed, though Genstruct said the deal allows it to retain biomarker intellectual property rights.
• 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.
• IDM Pharma Inc., of Irvine Calif., said it has regained compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements of a closing bid price of at least $1 per share. On Feb. 19, 2008, the closing price of the IDM's common stock was $3.14 per share, the company said. IDM is focused on the development of innovative cancer products that either destroy cancer cells by activating the immune system or prevent tumor recurrence by triggering a specific adaptive immune response.
• Neose Technologies Inc., of Horsham, Pa., said it has received a delisting warning letter from Nasdaq. The notice states that for 30 consecutive business days, the bid price for the company's common stock has closed below the required $1 per share minimum. As a result, Neose no longer meets Nasdaq's continued listing criteria and has 180 calendar days, or until Aug. 18, 2008, to regain compliance. To regain compliance, the closing bid price of the company's common stock must remain at or above $1 for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days prior to the end of the 180 calendar day compliance period. The notice has no effect on the listing of Neose's common stock at this time, and the company's shares will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market during the 180-day period, it said.
• Neuralstem Inc., of Rockville, Md., said that Korean conglomerate CJ CheilJedang Corp., a unit of CJ Group, has purchased an option to negotiate for the exclusive license to Neuralstem's stem cell products and technology, after the company completes a successful human clinical trial. Neuralstem said it is planning to begin human clinical trials this year with its stem cell products. As part of the agreement, CJ has purchased $2.5 million worth of Neuralstem stock at $4.063 per share. The terms of the license will be negotiated after the first successful human trial. CJ exclusive markets will include Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, with a first right of negotiation for China and Japan.
• Neurobiological Technologies Inc., of Emeryville, Calif., has received approximately $2.1 million from Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH, of Merz, Germany, for sales by Merz and its marketing partners of Memantine for the treatment of moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2007. Under an exclusive marketing agreement, NTI receives quarterly royalty payments on sales of Memantine by Merz and its marketing partners.
• 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.
• 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.
• Sciele Pharma Inc., of Atlanta, said Addrenex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Durham, N.C., has submitted a new drug application to the FDA for CloniBID, a potential treatment for hypertension. If approved, Sciele said it expects to launch that product in the first half of 2009. Sciele also announced that the FDA has extended to July 15 the agency's action date on a nonpesticide product that kills lice by asphyxiation. Sciele has licensed the lice treatment from Summers Laboratories Inc., of Collegeville, Pa.
• Sirion Therapeutics Inc., of Tampa, Fla., entered an exclusive licensing agreement with Bridge Pharma Inc., of Sarasota, Fla., for the worldwide rights to develop and market topical ophthalmic formulations containing Bridge's norketotifen, an anti-inflammatory agent with additional antihistaminic activity. Under the terms, Sirion will have the right to manufacture, sell and distribute norketotifen for ocular use either alone or in combination with other drugs. Sirion said it hopes to start clinical trials with the new formulation in the first half of 2009. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said a company co-founder plans to present the first in-vivo data showing that SIRT1 can suppress tumor formation and growth in the intestine and colon in a preclinical model of colon cancer. The presentation by Sirtris co-founder, David Sinclair, an associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, will be held Feb. 28 at the J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. These data are the work of Sirtris Scientific Advisory Board co-chairs Sinclair and Leonard Guarente, the Novartis professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• 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.
• Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, said it has earned a preclinical milestone payment from Raritan, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development LLC, under the companies' drug discovery collaboration agreement. The recent milestone payment was triggered by J&JPRD's selection of a compound targeting the Cathepsin S enzyme as a development candidate. Under the agreement, Sunesis has the potential to receive additional development milestone payments from J&JPRD, as well as royalty payments based on future product sales. The two companies entered into a research collaboration in May 2002 to discover oral small-molecule enzyme inhibitors for the treatment of major chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
• Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., said it will implement a 1-for-10 reverse stock split, which will reduce the company's total number of outstanding shares to about 8.1 million shares. That adjustment, approved by stockholders, is intended to help regain compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements.