• AEterna Zentaris Inc., of Quebec City, completed the previously announced sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Echelon Biosciences Inc., to Logan, Utah-based Frontier Scientific Inc. The sale brought AEterna $3.2 million, including $2.6 million up front and $600,000 in contingencies. AEterna intends to continue to divest non-core assets to fund Phase III development of cetrorelix in benign prostate hyperplasia.

• Ambrilia Biopharma Inc., of Montreal, appointed Philippe Calais president and CEO, effective Jan. 3. Calais also will join the company's board.

• AtheroGenics Inc., of Atlanta, was notified by Nasdaq that the company fails to comply with a rule which requires total assets and total revenue of $50 million each for the most recently completed fiscal year or two of the last three most recently completed fiscal years. The company said it expects to have total assets and total revenue in excess of $50 million for the 2007 fiscal year.

• AVI Biopharma Inc., of New York, said the FDA granted fast-track status to its product candidate AVI-4658 for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal genetic disorder in children. The compound uses the company's Exon Skipping PreRNA Interference Technology, which in animal models restored near-normal levels of dystrophin production. AVI plans a clinical trial with AVI4658 by mid-2008 to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug in ambulatory DMD patients.

• Cenomed BioSciences LLC, a majority-owned subsidiary of Abraxis BioScience Inc., of Los Angeles, signed an exclusive drug delivery agreement with Dutch firm ThioPharma Inc. According to the deal, ThioPharma will receive undisclosed up-front and milestone payments in exchange for developing technology to deliver Cenomed's psychiatric and neurological drugs across the blood-brain barrier.

• Cephalon Inc., of Frazer, Pa., said the FDA has accepted and granted priority review to the Treanda (bendamustine HCl) new drug application for the first-line treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Priority review reduces the targeted NDA review time from 10 months to six months. The FDA granted orphan drug status for the compound in August, which would entitle Cephalon to a seven-year period of marketing exclusivity in the U.S. if the product is approved for this indication.

• Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Denver, said in vitro testing demonstrated that the application of its Cerashield antimicrobial coating to endotracheal tube segments completely prevented bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause ventilator-associated pneumonia. Cerashield and the CGX-600 series of medical device anti-infective coatings are undergoing early stage research.

• Cytokinetics Inc., of South San Francisco, said a poster related to CK-1827452, a small-molecule activator of cardiac myosin, was presented at the 47th annual meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology. The data showed that CK-1827452 increases myocyte contractility without increasing intracellular calcium, even in combination with isoproterenol, and is unaffected by beta-blockade. The product is partnered with Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and is being studied in a Phase IIa trial for heart failure and in various Phase I trials. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 4, 2007.)

• Discovery Laboratories Inc., of Warrington, Pa., said data from preclinical studies using Aerosurf in preterm lambs demonstrated that it improves both lung function and reduces inflammation associated with lung injury and chronic lung disease. Aerosurf is an aerosolized formulation of Discovery Labs' novel KL4 surfactant technology that is delivered noninvasively via novel aerosol generating technology and employs nasal continuous positive airway pressure. The data were presented at the 2007 Annual Hot Topics in Neonatology meeting in Washington.

• Evotec AG, of Hamburg, Germany, has completed the sale of its chemical development business to Aptuit Inc., of Greenwich, Conn., for £31.5 million (US$65 million) effective Nov. 30. Evotec said it will focus more on discovery collaborations and partnering of preclinical and clinical programs developed internally. Evotec is in the process of closing on its $151.8 million stock deal to buy Renovis Inc., of South San Francisco.

• ImmuneRegen BioSciences Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz., and DelSite Biotechnologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Carrington Laboratories Inc., of Irving, Texas, have joined forces to design and develop novel treatments against pandemic flu. The agreement contemplates that DelSite's GelSite polysaccharide polymer may help the administration and enhance the activity of Homspera, ImmuneRegen's experimental candidate, which has demonstrated effectiveness as an anti-influenza agent and vaccine adjuvant when administered intranasally.

• Immunicon Corp., of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has filed with the FDA a request for clearance of the CellSearch Circulating Tumor Cell Kit as an aid in the monitoring of patients with metastatic androgen-independent prostate cancer. Last January, Immunicon met the primary endpoint in pivotal clinical trial in metastatic androgen-independent prostate cancer, demonstrating that circulating tumor cells levels three-to-five weeks after the initiation of chemotherapy predict overall survival.

• Innovex UK Ltd., of Bracknell, UK, the marketing arm of Quintiles Transnational Corp., entered an agreement with Zeltia SA subsidiary PharmaMar SA, of Madrid, Spain, to recruit, train and deploy a specialized oncology sales team in Western Europe to promote Yondelis, PharmaMar's treatment for soft-tissue sarcoma. PharmaMar will be responsible for marketing the drug, which was launched earlier this year in the UK and Germany. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• InSite Vision Inc., of Alameda, Calif., filed a new drug submission with Health Canada seeking approval of the antibiotic eyedrop AzaSite (azithromycin ophthalmic solution 1 percent) for conjunctivitis (pink eye). AzaSite was approved by the FDA for pink eye earlier this year and is marketed by Durham, N.C.-based Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc., which previously licensed U.S. and Canadian rights to the product. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 20, 2007, and May 1, 2007.)

• Neurobiological Technologies Inc., of Emeryville, Calif., and the Buck Institute for Age Research, of Novato, Calif., have formed a partnership to develop a drug to treat Huntington's disease using fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), a naturally occurring protein with neuroprotective properties. Buck scientists have used FGF-2, in both cell-based and animal models of HD. After being treated with FGF-2, mice with HD showed a 150 percent increase in new nerve cells, compared to a 30 percent increase in non-HD mice. Treatment extended the lifespan of the affected mice by 20 percent, and the animals also exhibited improved motor performance.

• OncoVista Inc., of San Antonio, exclusively licensed worldwide rights to OSI-7904L from Melville, N.Y.-based OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed. OSI-7904L is a liposomal formulation of a thymidylate synthase inhibitor that has been studied in Phase II trials for advanced gastric cancer, biliary tract cancer and head and neck cancer. OncoVista plans to begin a Phase II trial of OSI-7904L for either breast cancer or gastric cancer and will develop the drug in conjunction with its AdnaGen biomarker technology for screening trial participants and monitoring response to therapy.

• Regulus Therapeutics LLC, a microRNA joint venture formed earlier this fall between Cambridge, Mass.-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Carlsbad, Calif.-based Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., appointed Kleanthis Xanthopoulos as its president and CEO. Xanthopoulos previously served as president and CEO of Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc. and more recently as managing director of Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 10, 2007.)

• Santarus Inc., of San Diego, stands to receive an $11.5 million up-front fee and tiered, double-digit royalties for signing two product marketing deals with GlaxoSmithKline plc. One deal includes commercialization rights to prescription and over-the-counter immediate-release omeprazole proton pump inhibitor products in up to 114 countries excluding the U.S., Europe, Australia, Japan and Canada. The second deal covers commercialization rights to branded Zegerid (omeprazole/sodium bicarbonate) products in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. To support the launch, Santarus agreed to waive the first $2.5 million of aggregate royalties payable under these agreements. Shares of Santarus (NASDAQ:SNTS) rose 14 cents, or 5.5 percent, to close at $2.68 on Monday.

• Starpharma, of Melbourne, Australia, has signed a collaborative research agreement with Stiefel Laboratories Inc., of Coral Gables, Fla., to apply Starpharma's dendrimer nanotechnology to certain drugs used dermally. The collaboration applies Starpharma's dendrimer technology to deliver drugs through the skin with the aim of improving the effectiveness and tolerability of some dermal treatments. Starpharma will receive staged payments on successful completion of technical milestones. The agreement also deals with commercialization rights arising from the collaboration. No financial details were disclosed.

• StemCells Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., said it is exploring the acquisition of privately held Progenitor Cell Therapy, of Hankensack, N.J., a provider of cell processing services. Terms of the potential acquisition still are being negotiated. PCT has agreed to a period of exclusivity to allow the parties to complete due diligence and negotiate definitive agreements in exchange for an agreement by StemCells to make a secured loan of $3.8 million to PCT.