• 454 Life Sciences, of Branford, Conn., and Perlegen Sciences Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., said they will conduct large-scale genetic resequencing in hundreds of DNA samples collected by Perlegen from humans with specific responses to a widely prescribed class of drug. They intend to determine whether sufficient genetic variation can be identified and validated to create a clinical test to predict how people might respond to that class of medicines. Under the deal, Perlegen and 454 each will resequence select portions of the genome within each sample, using 454 Sequencing technology and DNA amplified with Perlegen's proprietary sample preparation and amplification technologies. The companies' data analysis teams will jointly study the combined results to determine how significant a role variation in genetic sequence plays in patient response to the drug class.

• Althea Technologies Inc., of San Diego, expanded a collaboration with BiPar Sciences Inc., of Brisbane, Calif. Althea will use its genomic technology to validate cancer biomarkers and predict clinical outcomes in BiPar's oncology clinical trials. Terms were not disclosed.

• Applied Biosystems Inc., of Foster City, Calif., signed an exclusive license and collaboration agreement with Olink Bioscience, of Uppsala, Sweden, to commercialize Olink's proximity ligation assay (PLA) technology. Applied Biosystems will co-develop the PLA technology for specific applications in the life science research market that include biomarker validation and characterization of complex biological processes. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Arteriocyte Inc., of Cleveland, received a $310,000 award from the National Institutes of Health to evaluate ACY001, its cellular therapy product, in diabetic retinopathies in collaboration with researchers at the Cleveland Clinic. Work will aim at treating an underlying cause of diabetic retinopathy, defined as hypoxia resulting from vaso-obliteration, and researchers will determine what role ACY001 might play in preventing the initial vaso-degenerative phase of the disease. The award was made by the NIH Eye Institute, as part of the Small Business Technology Transfer program.

• Biopure Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., said a one-for-five reverse stock split became effective on Tuesday. The move was intended to help the oxygen therapeutics company gain compliance with Nasdaq's $1 minimum bid price. Shares of Biopure (NASDAQ:BPURD) fell 29 cents, or 11.2 percent, to close at $2.26 on Tuesday.

• Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., of Hercules, Calif., completed its previously announced purchase of 77.7 percent of the outstanding shares of Switzerland-based DiaMed Holding AG for 477 million Swiss francs (US$408.9 million). Bio-Rad will conduct a tender offer to acquire the remaining shares in the next 12 months. DiaMed's blood screening instruments and reagents will be integrated into Bio-Rad's diagnostics business.

• Emergent BioSolutions Inc., of Rockville, Md., said it has completed an initial delivery of doses of BioThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) to the Department of Health and Human Services. As a result of this initial delivery of doses, the company estimates it will report approximately $42 million in BioThrax revenues for the third quarter of 2007. The initial delivery was made under a three-year agreement with HHS to supply 18.75 million doses of BioThrax for $400 million.

• GeneGo Inc., of St. Joseph, Mich., said Organon A/S, of Oss, the Netherlands, extended its license to GeneGo's MetaCore target identification software and added the visualization tool MetaLink.

• Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said partner F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, filed a clinical trial application with British regulatory authorities for a Genmab antibody developed under the companies' collaboration, triggering an undisclosed milestone payment to Genmab. Under the agreement, Genmab uses its antibody development capabilities to create drugs against a broad range of disease targets identified by Roche in exchange for up to $100 million in milestone payments and potential royalties. In certain cases, Genmab might obtain rights to develop products emerging from the collaboration.

• GenVec Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., has received $5.1 million in second-year funding of its $52 million contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) to produce HIV vaccines. The funds will support the transfer and scale-up of the company's manufacturing and purification technologies to the NIAID Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center's (VRC) Vaccine Pilot Plant in Frederick, Md., which produces materials for clinical research. The scope of work includes the development of new HIV vaccine candidates based on GenVec's proprietary Ad41 vector and production cell line technologies. As part of the contract modification, the VRC also has renewed its nonexclusive research license to GenVec's proprietary adenovector, production cell line, manufacturing process and formulation technologies that will enable production of next-generation HIV vaccines.

• HUYA Bioscience International LLC, of San Diego, licensed a clinical stage anti-arrhythmic drug from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The compound, dubbed HBI-3000 (sulcardine), regulates myocardial ion channels and has completed three Phase I trials. Terms were not disclosed.

• Introgen Therapeutics Inc., of Austin, Texas, said publication of data from a preclinical study demonstrates the combination of INGN 241, Introgen's mda-7/IL-24 cancer product candidate, and Velcade (Bortezemib, Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.) resulted in increased tumor cell killing in human ovarian cancer cells. The results appeared in an advanced on-line article in Cancer Gene Therapy and provide a new molecularly targeted approach to specifically destroy cancer cells, the company said. Researchers identified the degradation pathway for the MDA-7 tumor suppressor protein that is the active component of INGN 241. They showed that co-administration of INGN 241 and Velcade, a known protein degradation inhibitor, further elevated MDA-7 protein levels and caused a significant increase in killing of ovarian cancer cells.

• Invitrogen Corp., of Carlsbad, Calif., has entered into a licensing agreement with Natural Selection Inc., of San Diego, to make new microRNA sequences available to researchers. The microRNA sequences have been verified experimentally using deep sequencing, array profiling and qRT-PCR methods. The microRNA sequences will be submitted to the on-line database of The Sanger Institute, a biomedical research charity.

• Lev Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New York, said the FDA accepted the filing of the biologics license application for Cinryze, a C1 inhibitor, for the acute treatment of hereditary angioedema, and granted priority review, targeting action by Jan. 30. The BLA is based on a Phase III acute trial which met its protocol-defined, pre-specified primary endpoint with statistical significance as reported earlier this year. (See BioWorld Today, March 15, 2007.)

• MannKind Corp., of Valencia, Calif., is raising $250 million in a registered direct offering of 27 million shares. Of those, 15.9 million shares were sold to Alfred Mann, principal stockholder, CEO and chairman, at a price of $9.41 each, and the remaining 11.1 million shares, priced at $9.03 each, were sold to investors, including accounts managed by Legg Mason Capital Management Inc. Those proceeds, plus a $350 million loan agreement with Mann that provides the company with available credit until Dec. 31, 2009, are expected to enable the firm to advance its Technosphere Insulin program and fund other operations through the third quarter of 2009, including the expected new drug application filing for Technosphere, expected in December 2008. Shares of MannKind (NASDAQ:MNKD) gained 69 cents Tuesday to close at $10.10.

• NanoViricides Inc., of West Haven, Conn., said the firm's FluCide-I and FluCide-HP showed strong efficacy in animal models against H1N1, which was the cause of 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. The improved FluCide-I is now 16 times better than oseltamivir, the active ingredient in TamiFlu, from Basel, Switzerland-based F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., and FluCide-HP is eight times better than oseltamivir, based on dose-response comparisons, the company said, adding that in vitro studies have demonstrated that FluCide-HP is significantly superior to FluCide-I against H5N1, as expected.

• Phylonix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., has been awarded a three-year, $1.09 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the NIH's National Eye Institute to develop zebrafish eye disease models for drug screening. The company plans to create models of diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and retinopathy of prematurity.

• Renovis Inc., of South San Francisco, Calif., announced that company co-founder Corey Goodman has stepped down as president and CEO to pursue another opportunity, but will remain on the firm's board until the company has completed its merger with Evotec AG, of Hamburg, Germany. The firms announced the merger agreement Sept. 19. Following the merger, Goodman will serve on Evotec's supervisory board as well as on its scientific advisory board. Renovis Chairman John Walker has assumed the role of executive chairman with responsibility for working with the executive management team.

• Serentis, of Cambridge, UK, has completed the acquisition of Surface Therapeutics Ltd., of Abingdon, UK, for the issue of shares in Serentis. Financial details were not disclosed. Surface was founded in 2004 as a spinout from the University of Oxford based on research by its two founders, William Cookson and Miriam Moffatt. Their research identified several genes that predispose an individual to atopic dermatitis and asthma. The company's lead product, a treatment for atopic dermatitis, is in late-stage preclinical evaluation.

• Summit Corp. plc, of Abingdon, UK, said that it has received £220,000 from the UK muscular dystrophy charity Parent Project UK. The funds will support Summit's preclinical Duchenne muscular dystrophy program and an early-stage research project called the ZF Partnership that is seeking to identify additional DMD therapies using zebrafish disease models.

• Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, of Aliso Viejo, Calif., said it has granted Ascend Therapeutics, of Herndon, Va., exclusive rights to promote its migraine nasal spray Migranal (dihydroergotamine mesylate, USP) to more than 5,500 OB/GYNs in the U.S. Valeant will continue to market Migranal to physicians outside the OB/GYN specialty area and retain all other responsibilities for the product.