• Argenta Discovery Ltd., of Harlow, UK, extended its integrated contract drug discovery agreement with South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. for a further two-year period. The first collaboration project, signed in December 2005, and the second project, announced in March, use Argenta's expertise in computer-aided drug design, medicinal chemistry and in vitro biology and screening to discover new chemical entities acting against undisclosed targets defined by Genentech. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though the agreement provides further options to expand the relationship.

• Biovail Corp., of Toronto, submitted a complete response to the FDA's non-approvable letter for BVF-033, a once-daily salt formulation of buproprion. That submission includes new analyses of the data included in the original new drug application, but does not include results from any new studies. Biovail said the data package is sufficient to support BVF-033's approval and anticipates receiving a response from the agency in the near term.

• Celera Diagnostics, of Alameda, Calif., completed the acquisition of all the assets of Atria Genetics Inc., of South San Francisco, for about $33 million in cash. Through this deal, Celera gained Atria's line of human leukocyte antigen testing products used for identifying potential donors in the matching process for bone marrow transplantation. Privately held Atria had 13 employees, all of whom are expected to be integrated into Celera.

• National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., awarded a $51 million, five-year contract for continuing research led by Richard Ulevitch, of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., on understanding innate immunity. Researchers will use a systems biology approach to build a model of immune system's response to several disease-causing agents. To date, the team has focused on developing an account of innate immunity and the additional funding will help broaden the scope of the project to encompass components of adaptive immunity, which includes antibodies and T cells. The contract also will involve scientists from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle; Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.; and the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.

• Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Miami, said the FDA has issued an approvable letter related to the new drug application for Stavzor in 125-mg, 250-mg and 500-mg strengths. The company said the letter relates to the use of Stavzor in the treatment of manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder, adjunctive therapy in multiple seizure types and prophylaxis of migraine headaches. The FDA requested nonclinical information, including additional in vitro dissolution data, as a condition to final approval. The company said the agency has not requested additional human studies or clinical data. Noven said it still expects Stavzor to receive final approval by the end of July 2008, at the latest.

• Nycomed Denmark A/S, of Roskilde, Denmark, has licensed rights to distribute the synthetic bone hemostasis material Ostene from Ceremed Inc., of Los Angeles. The product is designed to stop bone bleeding in surgery that does not interfere with bone healing or increase the risk of surgical infections, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It is used in cardiac, orthopedic and neurosurgery. Terms were not disclosed.

• Pharmasset Inc., of Princeton, N.J., received fast-track designation for R7128, a prodrug of an oral cytidine nucleoside analogue HCV polymerase inhibitor, in chronic hepatitis C virus infection. The drug is being tested in a 28-day Phase I trial in combination with Pegasys (pegylated interferon) plus Copegus (ribavirin) in treatment-naïve patients chronically infected with HCV genotype 1.

• Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., has received a letter from Nasdaq indicating the company does not comply with the $1 minimum bid price requirement for continued listing. Threshold will have 180 days, or until April 16, 2008, to regain compliance.