• 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, and Wuppertal, Germany-basedAiCuris GmbH & Co KGhave entered into a research collaboration to develop a product pipeline of anti-infective drug candidates. 4SC AG will provide resources from its medicinal chemistry to AiCuris, and in return 4SC will receive unspecified research funds to further development of its own project pipeline.

• 7TM Pharma A/S, of Horsholm, Denmark, selected the Cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) antagonist TM38837 as a preclinical development candidate for obesity and metabolic diseases. The company plans to begin Phase I trials by the end of the year. A Phase II trial is under way with 7TM's lead obesity drug Obinepitide (TM30338), an analogue of two hormones released in connection with food intake, and a Phase I/II trial is ongoing with obesity drug TM30339, a selective Y4 receptor agonist peptide.

• Amarin Corp., of London, said it regained compliance with the Nasdaq listing requiring a $1 per share minimum bid price. Following Amarin's Jan. 18 reverse stock split, its Nasdaq ticker symbol for a 20 trading days will appear as AMRND. The ticker symbol will return to "AMRN" Feb. 19.

• Gastrotech Pharma A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, completed a $6 million Series D round to support its Phase IIb development program for GTP-010 in pain in irritable bowel disease. Funds also will be used to advance Phase II work on GTP-300, a ghrelin peptide, in cancer-associated cachexia and anorexia. CAT Invest I A/S, of Copenhagen, led the round, with participation from existing investors, including Nordic Biotech, BML Healthcare I LP and 123MultiNova Europe.

• London Genetics Ltd., of London, and Genizon BioSciences Inc., of Montreal, are collaborating to replicate discoveries made by Genizon in a genomewide association study of schizophrenia. Genizon's study identified multiple genes associated with the disease using DNA samples from the Quebec Founder Population. Genotyping of samples and statistical analyses of data will be conducted at Genizon's research center. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• SkyePharma plc, of London, entered an agreement for Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, of Hyderabad, India, to undertake a feasibility study of a product using two of SkyePharma's drug delivery systems. Dr. Reddy's will pay the cost of the study and also will pay SkyePharma an up-front fee. If the study is successful, full development activities will begin later this year.

• Synairgen plc, of Southampton, UK, said it was granted a U.S. patent on its screening test that can identify compounds capable of improving lung barrier function in asthmatics. In asthmatics, the cell barrier that lines the lungs is poorly formed and external irritants such as pollen, air pollution and viruses pass through the leaky barrier thereby creating inflammation. Synairgen's test enables it to validate early stage compounds with the potential of improving barrier function.

• Tissue Therapies Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia, said it has been granted ethics approval to proceed with the human clinical trial of VitroGro, a wound healing product for the treatment of diabetic and venous ulcers. The trial is set to begin later in February.

• Trophos SA, of Marseille, France, said the Michael J. Fox Foundation awarded the firm a Therapeutics Development Initiative grant to evaluate compounds preventing mitochondrial dysfunction to treat Parkinson's disease. The project aims to establish the ability of two Trophos compounds to arrest or prevent the early PD-like behavioral changes observed in a preclinical model overexpressing human alpha-synuclein. One of those compounds, TRO19622, already has demonstrated a good safety profile in human trials.

• UCB SA, of Brussels, Belgium, said the FDA has agreed to accept a biologics license application for Cimzia for the treatment of adult patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Cimzia would be the first and only PEGylated anti-TNF biologic therapy available for the treatment of RA. The BLA is based on data from more than 2,367 patients and includes three multicenter, placebo-controlled Phase III trials that were recently presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting. In those studies, Cimzia, given with methotrexate, was shown to be significantly more effective than methotrexate alone for the inhibition of joint damage progression in patients with active RA as early as 24 weeks.

• Xenome Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia, named Ian Nisbet as CEO. Nisbet also will join Xenome's board as managing director. Nisbet previously worked in senior management and executive roles in a number of biotechnology companies, including ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Meditech Research Ltd., Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. and CSL Ltd.