• Biota Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, increased its estimated damages in its lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London. The suit alleges GSK failed to properly develop and promote the licensed influenza drug Relenza. Biota said an updated damages assessment filed with the Victorian Supreme Court estimated its losses to A$564 million to A$704 million (US$485 million to US$605 million), net of royalties paid to date by GSK. Witness statements are expected to be filed in October, and the trial is scheduled for April 2008.

• Bioxel Pharma Inc., of Sainte-Foy, Quebec, submitted a drug master file with Health Canada seeking approval of its docetaxel, the active agent in the cancer drug Taxotere. Bioxel filed for approval in the U.S. in June. Bioxel said it is pursuing commercial discussions with generic and specialty pharmaceutical companies that plan to use its docetaxel in their formulated products.

• Cardium Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, said its stock will begin trading on the American Stock Exchange today under the trading symbol "CXM." The company and its subsidiaries, InnerCool Therapies Inc. and the Tissue Repair Co., focus primarily on the development, manufacture and sale of therapeutic products and devices for cardiovascular, ischemic and related indications.

• Cell Therapeutics Inc., of Seattle, said it closed on a previously disclosed sale of $20.25 million in 3 percent convertible preferred stock and warrants. The preferred stock is convertible into about 5.2 million common shares, at a conversion price of $3.90 per share. The company also issued warrants to purchase up to 2.6 million shares at $4.53 per share. Rodman & Renshaw LLC was placement agent for the deal.

• Chembio Diagnostics Inc., of New York, entered a collaboration with Pall Corp., of East Hill, N.Y., in a deal that will use Chembio's new Dual Path Platform. The initial collaboration will focus on the feasibility of one application of the technology. The immunoassay platform is lateral-flow technology that uses separate membrane strips for sample migration and test reagents. Pall will fund feasibility studies, which if positive could lead to license and other agreements.

• DNAPrint Genomics Inc., of Sarasota, Fla., reached an agreement with Dutchess Private Equities Fund Ltd. whereby about $6 million in notes and incentive debentures may be paid in full by the issuance of stock and warrants in connection with a proposed spin-off of DNAPrint's wholly owned subsidiary, DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals Inc. Following the spin-off, the subsidiary would issue up to 2 million shares of common stock to Dutchess as payment for amounts due under certain notes that were made by DNAPrint Genomics. Dutchess would be entitled to significant royalty income from the subsidiary and 4 percent of all DNAPrint Genomics sales, which would be credited toward retirement of the debt.

• GeneGo Inc., of St. Joseph, Mich., said Philips Research, an industrial research institute, licensed its MetaCore technology. MetaCore, a flexible pathway analysis platform, is designed to assist in the areas of target selection and validation, identification of biomarkers for disease states and toxicology. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Generex Biotechnology Corp., of Worcester, Mass., said studies demonstrating the antitumor activity of its Ii-Key/HER-2/neu immunotherapeutic vaccine were published in the International Journal of Cancer. There also were mechanistic explanations for the enhancements observed using the vaccine. Data showed the interaction time between the peptide vaccine and T helper cells was increased, thereby enhancing specific stimulation against the HER-2/neu peptide.

• GeoVax Labs Inc., of Atlanta, said it entered a definitive agreement with PURE Capital LLC for the sale of $7.5 million of GeoVax common stock. The investment will be made in two closings, on Aug. 6 and Nov. 5. The first closing for $3.5 million will be for 22.58 million shares, and include 18.3 million three-year warrants exercisable at 33 cents per share. The second closing of $4 million will be for 25.8 million shares, and include 16.7 million warrants exercisable at the closing price on the day immediately preceding that closing. The company is developing vaccines against diseases caused by HIV-1 and other infectious agents. Funds will allow the company to move forward into larger-scale Phase II trials for an AIDS prevention product.

• GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, said an FDA advisory committee voted 22-1 to support Avandia's (rosiglitazone maleate) continued availability to patients in the U.S. Committee members voted that the data suggested there is some ischemic risk with the Type II diabetes product. They declined to comment on comparative risk of Avandia to other oral antidiabetic medicines. The FDA is not bound by the panel's recommendation.

• GNI Ltd., of Tokyo, said it received approval from the Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. to list its shares on the Mothers market of the exchange. The target date for GNI's shares to be listed is Aug. 31, once the price for the offering of the company's shares is determined through a book-building process. The company, which has operations in Japan, China and the U.S., uses a reverse-engineering technology to map gene regulatory networks.

• Juvaris BioTherapeutics Inc., of Pleasanton, Calif., was awarded an estimated $9 million, five-year grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop adjuvants for influenza vaccines. The award will be used to examine the mechanism of action of JuvaVax adjuvanted vaccines and to apply that knowledge to determine its efficacy when the flu vaccination and challenge virus both are matched and mismatched. Research, which will be conducted in collaboration with Stanford University and the National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, and results also will be applicable to other viral, bacterial and cancer vaccines using the JuvaVax technology.

• Laureate Pharma Inc., of Princeton, N.J., entered a cGMP contract manufacturing agreement with Enobia Pharma Inc., of Montreal. Laureate will produce Enobia's fusion protein for treatment of hypophosphatasia, a rare metabolic bone disease characterized by skeletal hypomineralization. Enobia anticipates initiating clinical studies in summer 2008. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• Lux Biosciences Inc., of Jersey City, N.J., said the European Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products adopted a positive opinion on orphan drug designation for LX211, the company's candidate for chronic, noninfectious uveitis. The committee will forward the opinion to the European Commission, which is expected to adopt the decision within 30 days. LX211 is a next-generation calcineurin inhibitor intended to treat noninfectious posterior, intermediate and panuveitis. The product is in pivotal trials.

• NeurAxon Inc., of Waltham, Mass., appointed Lawrence Bloch as CEO and member of the board. Block most recently served as chief financial officer and chief business officer at Lexington, Mass.-based NitroMed Inc. NeurAxon, which focuses on elucidating the role of neuronal NOS (nNOS) in modulating pain, is in Phase I testing with NXN-188, its lead candidate in acute migraine.

• Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., of San Diego, gained an exclusive worldwide license to valnoctamide stereoisomers from Yissum Research Development Co. of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Valnoctamide and its individual stereoisomers have been shown to be active in a number of preclinical models and have the potential to treat epilepsy, bipolar disease and neuropathic pain. The parent compound is a uniform combination of four valnoctamide stereoisomers that was marketed as an anxiolytic in several European countries. Neurocrine said preclinical studies showed the stereoisomer of valnoctamide has not been associated with the safety concerns of valproate, an approved antiepileptic drug from the same class. Neurocrine intends to submit an investigational new drug application in the first half of 2008.

• PharmAthene Inc., of Annapolis, Md., and Medarex Inc., of Princeton, N.J., reported in vitro study results showing that the companies' anthrax antitoxin, Valortim, might possess the ability to enhance macrophage killing of Bacillus anthracis spores within macrophages, meaning it potentially could block the ability of those spores to develop into bacteria and prevent toxin production and propagation of infection. Data were presented at the Bacillus ACT 2007 conference in Oslo, Norway. Valortim, a fully human monoclonal antibody generated by Medarex's UltiMAb technology, in being co-developed for potentially preventing and treating inhalation anthrax.

• Qiagen NV, of Venlo, the Netherlands, said it completed its $1.6 billion acquisition of Digene Corp., of Gaithersburg, Md. Digene now is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qiagen affiliate company Qiagen North American Holdings Inc. Trading in Digene stock on Nasdaq was ceased. Separately, Qiagen opened its new subsidiary in Hong Kong.

• Silence Therapeutics plc, of London, expanded its technology license agreement with Fremont, Calif.-based Quark Pharmaceuticals Inc. to provide Quark with options to nonexclusive licenses to develop additional molecules against three specific targets using Silence's AtuRNAi technology. The original deal, signed in April 2005, provided Quark with access to the technology to develop compound RTP801i, which Quark licensed to New York-based Pfizer Inc. in 2006. That product is in Phase I testing in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration. Quark's product portfolio includes one additional siRNA molecule with a structure covered by Silence patents. Specific financial terms of the expanded agreement were not disclosed, though Silence will be entitled to milestone payments and a royalty on product sales.

• Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said that activation of SIRT1, a member of the sirtuin family of enzymes, was shown to be neuroprotective in an animal model of optic neuritis. Those findings appeared in The Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science Journal. The paper said SRT501, Sirtris' formulation of resveratrol, reduced the loss of retinal ganglion cells and preserved axonal function. Also, the neuroprotective effect was shown to be SIRT1 dependent because it was blocked by sirtinol, a SIRT1 inhibitor.