• Ardana plc,of Edinburgh, UK, announced positive preliminary results from a Phase II study of its GnRH antagonist Teverelix Long Acting, showing patients only may need two maintenance doses per year to treat the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia, a significant potential improvement over current treatments. In previous studies, the product has been shown to decrease testosterone and subsequently dihydrotestosterone in a dose-dependent manner to levels at the low end of the normal range thereby avoiding a chemical castration. In two earlier Phase II studies, there was an improvement in symptoms as early as two weeks after dosing.

• Argenta Discovery Ltd., of Harlow, UK, and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Inc., of Hyderabad, India, selected a lead candidate in their program to develop an inhaled, disease-modifying, anti-inflammatory drug for chronic respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and severe asthma. The companies plan to begin clinical trials in mid-2008.

• Crucell NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, said it has granted research rights for PER.C6 to Acambis plc, of Cambridge, UK, and Cambridge, Mass. The license agreement allows Acambis to use Crucell's PER.C6 technology for an undisclosed vaccine candidate. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Diamyd Medical AB, of Stockholm, Sweden, said it executed a clinical trial agreement with the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for a planned clinical study with the firm's Diamyd GAD-alum diabetes vaccine in 126 patients with new onset Type I diabetes. Under the terms of the agreement, Diamyd Medical will supply the vaccine and placebo for the trial, which will include extensive immunological studies to clarify the mechanism of action and to evaluate the correlation between the clinical and immunological outcomes of GAD-alum Diamyd treatment in patients with recent onset Type I diabetes. The firm previously announced plans for a Phase III program to test the vaccine in patients with recent onset Type I diabetes in the U.S. and Europe.

• Epistem Holdings plc, of Manchester, UK, raised £1.1 million by a placement of 653,806 shares. The adult stem cell specialist will use the money to accelerate development of its gene expression biomarker technology. The biomarker platform analyzes changes in gene expression from RNA extracted from cells located at the base of a single human plucked hair. That is used to identify drug-induced changes in gene expression for use in drug development.

• Eurofins Scientific, of Nantes, France, acquired three firms specialized in the supply of genomics services in the third week of November. The companies are based in Germany, Japan and the U.S., respectively, and perform services such as customized nucleic acid production, DNA analytical testing and proteomics analysis. They employ 200 staff among them, generated combined revenues of €20 million in 2006 and are expected to make a positive contribution to Eurofins' group earnings starting in 2008. The company said the acquisition should strengthen its position in the genomics market, as well as in molecular biologic research.

• Ipsen SA, of Paris, and Celera Group, of Alameda, Calif., formed a research collaboration to develop biomarker and pharmacogenomic tests for growth failure. Celera will receive an undisclosed payment for the initial phase of the collaboration, which will focus on discovering biomarkers that eventually would be used to develop companion diagnostics for Ipsen's short stature drugs.

• MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said it has been granted the rights to a variety of its phage display-related patents and other patents under an agreement with Dyax Corp., of Cambridge, Mass. As part of the deal, MorphoSys gains the right to sublicense the patents in conjunction with its proprietary technology. The agreement grants MorphoSys the flexibility for future technology development to further diversify its antibody technology portfolio and improve its offering for therapeutic, diagnostic and research customers. Financial terms were not disclosed. MorphoSys also unveiled a multiyear technology development program which the firm said will lead to a significantly enhanced version of its antibody generation platform.

• NicOx SA, of Sophia-Antipolis, France, and Topigen Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Montreal, announced the initiation of a Phase II trial of TPI 1020, an anti-inflammatory drug candidate developed by NicOx for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). TPI 1020 is an inhaled nitric oxide-donating derivative of budesonide, a corticosteroid marketed by AstraZeneca plc, of London, under the name of Pulmicort. The multicenter trial is designed to provide the first evaluation of TPI 1020's potential activity in the treatment of COPD. Topigen, which is specialized in respiratory diseases, said the primary endpoint of the proof-of-concept trial is to evaluate the general lack of toxicity and tolerability of TPI 1020 in relation to regular budesonide, as well as its mechanism of action on neutrophils in patients' secretions (neutrophils are immune cells that play an important role in the pathology of COPD).

• OncoMethylome Sciences, of Liege, Belgium, entered a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, a division of London-based GlaxoSmithKline plc, to identify DNA methylation biomarkers for certain GSK cancer immunotherapeutics. The project is being funded by a Wallonia (BioWin) research grant. Further terms were not disclosed.

• Orexo AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, completed its acquisition of Biolipox AB, of Solna, Sweden, and appointed former Biolipox CEO Torbjörn Bjerke CEO of the combined company. That deal was announced in October. Former Orexo CEO Zsolt Lavotha will serve as senior advisor to the firm's board. Claes Wenthzel also was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer. In addition, the firm said that its board of directors prepared a prospectus regarding listing of shares in Orexo in connection with the acquisition of Biolipox.

• Phynova Group plc, of Oxford, UK, announced preliminary data from the Phase I/II trial of its lead drug candidate PYN17 for treating the symptoms of chronic hepatitis C showing the drug was well tolerated, with a low level of relatively minor adverse events that were identical to those seen with placebo. CEO Robert Miller said, "This study confirms that PYN17 is well tolerated with a good safety profile. This is a very important attribute for patients suffering from this serious chronic condition since current treatments for hepatitis C have a notoriously high level of drug-related toxicity. We expect to commence the pivotal, Phase IIb study in the first half of 2008."

• Plasticell Ltd., of London, raised £250,000 (US$517,404) from the venture capital firm the Capital Fund, also of London, to add to a recent injection of £440,000 from existing shareholders. The money will be used to advance the company's CombiCult platform for directing the development of stem cells toward defined tissue types for use in drug discovery. Earlier this month, Plasticell's CEO Yen Choo was appointed to the UK government's steering committee for the UK Stem Cell Bank and the Use of Stem Cell Lines, as the first representative of the biotech industry.

• PolyTherics Ltd., of London, was awarded £350,000 (US$723,957) by the UK government's Technology Strategy Board to fund a joint project with biopharmaceuticals manufacturer Avecia Ltd., of Manchester, UK, to develop new systems for the production of therapeutic antibody fragments. To date, the systems that have been developed to produce smaller, less costly, antibody fragments suffer from the disadvantage of reducing the half-life of those drugs. The project will use PolyTherics' PEGylation technology, TheraPEG, which can extend the half-life of protein drugs.

• Qiagen NV, of Venlo, the Netherlands, said that Health Canada has granted licensure for the firm's hepatitis B virus (HBV) assay kit, known as the artus HBV LC PCR Kit. The ready-to-use molecular diagnostic detection kit for the quantitation of hepatitis B viral DNA from plasma helps to monitor ongoing drug therapy treatments for people chronically infected with hepatitis B. The kit uses the polymerase chain reaction amplification technology and is configured for the widely available LightCycler Instrument.

• Rosetta Genomics Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, and the New York University School of Medicine said they have expanded their collaboration to screen for specific microRNA biomarkers and signatures that may be used to diagnose and target congenital heart disease in newborns.

• Vectura Group plc, of Chippenham, UK, said it will receive a cash milestone of €10 million (US$14.9 million) from its partner Boehringer Ingelheim, of Ingelheim, Germany, which at the same time will make an equity investment of €5 million through the purchase of 3.6 million shares at a price of 96 pence per share. That follows receipt of an initial €5 million and the purchase of 4.9 million shares for €10 million when the two established their collaboration on the development of a multidose dry powder inhaler for use in the treatment of respiratory diseases in May 2006. Boehringer Ingelheim now owns 2.7 percent of Vectura.