• Circassia Ltd., of Oxford, UK, has appointed Richard Sykes chairman of the board. He succeeds Charles Swingland, who held the post of executive chairman following creation of the company earlier this year. Swingland will remain as deputy chairman and general counsel. Sykes is former chairman and CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. He currently is rector of Imperial College London and serves as chairman of the UK Stem Cell Foundation and chairs London's Council for the Advancement of Science and Industry.

• Depomed Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., ended the license agreement and the related supply and co-promotion agreements with Esprit Pharma Inc., of New Brunswick, N.J., for ProQuin XR, the extended-release formulation of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride for the treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections. Esprit has paid Depomed $17.5 million, and will return the ownership of the Proquin new drug application to Depomed along with all promotional materials. The two firms entered the deal about two years ago. Under the terms, Esprit got rights to market the drug in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, in return for a $50 million license fee, consisting of $30 million up front, $10 million in 12 months and the final $10 million due in 24 months. DepoMed's stock (NASAQ:DEPO) closed Thursday at $4.85, down 7 cents.

• Eli Lilly & Co., of Indianapolis, and the Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) announced finding a novel recurring mutation of the gene AKT1 in breast, colorectal and ovarian cancers. The altered form of AKT1 appears to cause tumor cell proliferation and may play a role in making cells resistant to certain types of therapies. The findings are reported in an advance online publication of the journal Nature. The PI3-Kinase/AKT pathway is among the most commonly activated cellular pathways in human cancers and members of that pathway are among the most frequently targeted for new cancer drug discovery efforts. Activation of the pathway results in cancer cell growth and cell survival. Although AKT1 is central to pathway activation, its role in cancer has been that of an intermediary between mutated upstream regulatory proteins and downstream survival signaling proteins. That is the first evidence of direct mutation of AKT1 in human cancer tumors. It was discovered in clinical samples from cancer patients, yet has never been detected in cancer cell lines.

• MicroIslet Inc., of San Diego, named Jonathan Lakey president, and said Michael Andrews will serve as CEO. Lakey previously was appointed chief scientific officer at the company. Both Lakey and Andrews joined the MicroIslet board. James Gavin III resigned as president and CEO and will be leaving MicroIslet to pursue other endeavors, the company said. MicroIslet is developing products in the field of transplantation therapy for people with conditions requiring cell-based replacement treatments, with a focus on Type I diabetes.

• Oragenics Inc., of Alachua, Fla., said the American Stock Exchange has accepted the company's plan to regain compliance for continued listing. AMEX had notified the company that it was out of compliance because shareholders' equity was less than $2 million and it had suffered losses from continuing operations and/or net losses in two out of its three most recent fiscal years. After reviewing the company's plan to regain compliance, AMEX extended the listing to Oct. 27, 2008.

• Repros Therapeutics Inc., of The Woodlands, Texas, said an article in the July 1 issue of Oncology Reports indicated a potential for a new approach to the treatment of breast cancer using Proellex, its progesterone receptor modulator. In the report, the effects of Proellex were evaluated in a rat model in which breast tumors were induced via a known carcinogenic compound. The hormone progesterone was shown to increase the number of growing tumors. Conversely, the administration of Proellex showed an inhibitory effect resulting in both a regression of the size of tumors and a suppression of the development of new tumors. The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and IIT Research Institute.

• Rosetta Genomics Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, said research published in the journal Molecular Cell by scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and Rosetta suggested the potential for a specific, single microRNA (miR-34a) to be used as a drug candidate in cancer therapy to increase programmed cell death in the context of the potent tumor suppressor p53. In the study, activation of p53 in vivo in mice as well as in cultured human cells induced the expression of a specific microRNA (miR-34a). Based on the likelihood that miR-34a could itself play a role in cellular apoptosis, researchers introduced miR-34a directly into human cancer cell lines to determine its impact on tumor cell behavior. The results clearly demonstrated that overexpression of miR-34a led to increased cancer cell death as well as promoted other important anti-proliferative activities. Rosetta said the data also are supported by recent studies showing that miR-34a is underexpressed in central nervous system tumors.

• Spectral Diagnostics Inc., of Toronto, has reached agreement with Fisher Healthcare, of Houston, for the distribution of Spectral's RapidWN West Nile Virus Test in the U.S. Product shipments are expected to begin this month. Spectral now has marketing channels established in the U.S. and Canada.