• Actelion Ltd., of Allschwil, Switzerland, said that the European Union's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) issued a negative opinion about extending the use of Zavesca (miglustat) to patients suffering from Niemann Pick type C (NP-C), a rare, fatal, degenerative genetic disease associated with multiple neurological manifestations that primarily affects children and adolescents. There is no treatment available for NP-C. Zavesca is approved in the U.S., the European Union, Canada, Switzerland, Brazil, Australia and Israel for the oral treatment of mild to moderate Type 1 Gaucher disease in patients for which enzyme replacement therapy is unsuitable. Actelion said it intends to request a re-examination of the CHMP opinion. The CHMP is expected to issue a final opinion in the first quarter of 2008.

• BioWa Inc., of Princeton, N.J., said it has granted GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, access to its patented Potelligent Technology platform for the development of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity-enhanced antibodies. The agreement grants GSK nonexclusive rights to research and develop antibodies based on Potelligent Technology for an undisclosed number of targets. BioWa will receive an up-front payment in an undisclosed amount and license fees. Other details of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Chromatin Inc., of Chicago, has granted nonexclusive rights to its gene-stacking technology for trait genes in corn and soybeans to Syngenta Biotechnology Inc., of Raleigh, N.C. Chromatin's novel approach to gene stacking uses a plant's own DNA to deliver several genes on a mini-chromosome.

• Generex Biotechnology Corp., of Worcester, Mass., entered into an exclusive product licensing and distribution agreement with the South African firms Adcock Ingram Ltd. and Adcock Ingram Healthcare Ltd. for the marketing, distribution and sale of Generex Oral-lyn, the Generex's oral insulin spray product, in South Africa and six other neighboring countries: Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

• GenVec Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., said that it will receive up to $1.9 million over the next year from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center under a multiyear contract to develop and manufacture novel adenovector-based HIV vaccines. The funds will support continued development of next-generation vaccines for HIV and influenza. Initiated in 2001 as a three-year $10.2 million program, the VRC subcontract now extends through fiscal year 2008, with a total value of about $55 million. To date, the Ad5 HIV vaccine candidates produced by GenVec has been administered to about 1,400 volunteers in 14 clinical trials.

• Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., said it has received a positive opinion from the European Union's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommending approval for Retacrit (epoetin zeta), a treatment for anemia associated with chronic renal failure and chemotherapy-induced anemia. Retacrit is a follow-on biologic erythropoiesis-stimulating agent. Hospira said it expects EU approval for Retacrit in late 2007. The company plans to launch the product, which will be Hospira's first marketed follow-on biologic, called biosimilar products in Europe, in various EU countries beginning in early 2008.

• MacroChem Corp., of Wellesley Hills, Mass., said it has appointed Michael Zasloff, professor of surgery and pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, to its scientific advisory board. Zasloff founded Magainin Pharmaceuticals Inc., now Genaera Corp., of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., in 1989 and served as vice chairman and executive vice president of the firm until 2001. He discovered magainins, a class of antimicrobial peptides, in the skin of the African clawed frog while at the National Institutes of Health and later pioneered the development of the peptides, specifically pexiganan, as human anti-infective drugs. MacroChem recently acquired the rights from Genaera to pexiganan. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 4, 2007.)

• Orthovita Inc., of Malvern, Pa., entered a binding term sheet to acquire raw material, equipment and a technology license from Irvine, Calif.-based Allergan Inc., and its affiliate Allergan Sales LLC, for an aggregate purchase price of about $6.6 million in cash. Orthovita expects to make the payment in a lump sum on or about Oct. 31, 2007. The deal relates primarily to the production of Orthovita's Vitagel Surgical Hemostat product, which combines the biomaterials bovine collagen and thrombin with the patient's autologous plasma. Allergan, which currently supplies collagen for Vitagel, will manufacture and supply specified quantities to Orthovita no later than Oct. 31, 2008, and also agreed to grant Orthovita a nonexclusive, perpetual, royalty-free license to certain collagen production process technology and know-how.

• Provectus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Knoxville, Tenn., said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted allowance of the firm's patent application protecting diagnostic uses of a new class of radiochemical agents related to its therapeutic product PV-10. The pending patent covers certain diagnostic uses of a new family of analogues of PV-10, Provectus' novel formulation of rose bengal for oncology, as diagnostic agents for use in positron emission tomography.

• QLT Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, completed its acquisition of privately held ForSight Newco II Inc., a spinout of ForSight Labs LLC, of Menlo Park, Calif., gaining rights to commercialize ForSight's ocular punctual plug delivery system. QLT said the noninvasive delivery system should be capable of delivering a variety of drugs to the eye over time through sustained release to the tear film. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 10, 2007.)