• Alteon Inc., of Montvale, N.J., said its reverse stock split and its name change will go into effect today. The new name is Synvista Therapeutics Inc. and the new AMEX ticker symbol is "SYI." The reverse stock split will be at a ratio of 1 to 50.

• Amarillo Biosciences Inc., of Amarillo, Texas, said it agreed to provide oral interferon to be tested as a treatment of chronic coughing associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center granted funding for the 40-patient study. Separately, the company retained Commonwealth Associates to provide general financial consulting services and assist with capital formation to accelerate ABI's ongoing Phase II trials in oral warts in HIV patients and its Behcet's disease study.

• Ambrx Inc., of San Diego, appointed Stephen Kaldor president and CEO. He also joined the board. Kaldor joined Ambrx from Takeda San Diego Inc., where he was president and chief scientific officer. Prior to that, he was president and CSO of Syrrx Inc. Ambrx is developing protein-based drugs designed to have improved characteristics.

• ChemoCentryx Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., said it earned a $5 million milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, for progress in their small-molecule CCR1 discovery and development program. The milestone was triggered by the acceptance of ChemoCentryx's orally bioavailable small molecule, CCX354, as a candidate for full development. CCX354 is designed to selectively inhibit the CCR1 chemokine receptor, a target for the treatment of certain autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, as well as other inflammatory diseases. The companies in August 2006 entered a potential $1.5 billion collaboration for development of drugs targeting four chemokine and chemo-attractant receptors for the treatment of a variety of inflammatory disorders. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 26, 2006.)

• Clinical Data Inc., of Newton, Mass., said underwriters of its recent public offering exercised an overallotment option to purchase 450,000 additional shares. The offering now totals 3.45 million shares priced at $22 each, for gross proceeds of $75.9 million. Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. was the sole book-running manager of the offering, with Lazard Capital Markets LLC acting as co-manager. (See BioWorld Today, July 19, 2007.)

• Evogene Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, and the French scientific organization CIRAD expanded their collaboration from 2004. They plan to introduce Evogene's EVO133 gene into cotton and to validate its use for drought tolerance. The EVO133 gene has been tested in three seasons of field trials in processing tomato varieties and demonstrated the potential to increase yield under normal conditions and reduce yield penalty under unfavorable conditions, Evogene said. It also is being developed in other crops with other partners.

• GeneGo Inc., of St. Joseph, Mich., said the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle licensed its OMICs data analysis suite, MetaCore and 1-2-3 Workflow. ISB researchers will have access to GeneGo pathway analysis and systems biology tools. MetaCore will be integrated with Cytoscape, an open-source network visualization software supported by ISB. GeneGo and ISB, a nonprofit institute, also plan to collaborate on several research projects.

• Inovio Biomedical Corp., of San Diego, said its wholly owned Genetronics Inc. subsidiary entered into separate agreements with the National Cancer Institute and the International Aids Vaccine Initiative. The deals cover evaluation of Inovio's electroporation technology for the delivery of DNA vaccines. The collaboration with the NCI is being conducted under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement and will assess novel HIV constructs in non-human primates, cytokine genes as vaccine adjuvants and possibly anticancer therapies delivered using Inovio's electroporation-mediated DNA delivery technology. Inovio's collaboration with IAVI will focus on optimizing HIV vaccine design. Experimental vaccines will be screened in preclinical models to select the most efficacious design to advance to clinical testing.

• Neurochem Inc., of Laval, Quebec, said the FDA granted fast-track status to tramiprosate (Alzhemed) for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Neurochem has a meeting with the FDA in August to discuss the Alzhemed Phase III program and to present an update on the work accomplished to date on the North American Phase III clinical trial, results from which may lead to modification of an ongoing Phase III European trial.

• Pro-Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newton, Mass., submitted a plan to the American Stock Exchange that outlines how it will regain compliance with continued listing requirements. If the plan is accepted, the company may be able to continue its listing for up to 18 months.

• Samaritan Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Las Vegas, entered an exclusive license agreement with Georgetown University for patent rights to benzamide compounds for treating HIV and other infectious diseases. Samaritan gained exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize benzamide compounds in exchange for royalty payments. Samaritan said the license covers its SP-10T1 hepatitis C drug candidate.

• Senesco Technologies Inc., of New Brunswick, N.J., said Bayer CropScience, of Monheim, Germany, was granted exclusive rights to Senesco's gene technology for use in cotton. Bayer plans to use the technology to enhance cotton fiber and seed yields in its FiberMax brand on a global basis. In return, Senesco is entitled to milestones and royalty payments. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed. The companies previously entered a deal to use of Senesco's technology in canola.

• Summit Corp. plc, of Oxford, UK (formerly Vastox plc), and Evolva Biotech SA, of Basel, Switzerland, entered a three-year agreement to develop drugs for infectious diseases. The collaboration covers Summit's immunomodulator drug candidate SMT14400 (formerly VOX 14400) and backup compounds from its imino sugar library. They will work to develop clinical-stage compounds that show efficacy against viruses and bacteria relating specifically to biodefense targets such as anthrax and Ebola, and other infectious diseases such as HIV and influenza. The companies will make an initial co-investment of $1 million, and co-invest more than $10 million over the next three years on a 50:50 basis in infectious diseases. Summit has rights to SMT14400 in the areas of oncology and allergy.

• Tikvah Therapeutics Inc., of Atlanta, got exclusive rights to patent and patent applications encompassing the diagnosis, methods of use and treatments of a variety of neurodegenerative disorders, from Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. Technology developed at the institute has suggested that certain classes of drugs can be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases, including spinal muscular atrophy. Academia Sinica is entitled to a licensing fee along with potential milestone and royalty payments.

• Vivalis, of Nantes, France, and MAT BioPharma, of Evry, France, said they will enter a new phase of their collaboration to produce preclinical products. The move followed promising data from the deal under which MAT is evaluating Vivalis' EBx cell lines for the production of monoclonal antibodies. The companies said they demonstrated that the glycosylation profile of a monoclonal antibody of the IgG1 subtype produced in avian EBx cells is similar to human antibodies' glycosylation profile.

• Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, of Collegeville, Pa., said it received an approvable letter from the FDA for Pristiq (desvenlafaxine), a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, as a treatment for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats) associated with menopause. The FDA said Wyeth has to provide additional data regarding the potential for serious adverse cardiovascular and hepatic effects. That would require a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, lasting at least one year, in postmenopausal women. Wyeth also must address certain chemistry, manufacturing and controls deficiencies.