• Adaltis Inc., of Montreal, signed a distribution agreement with a bioMerieux company in China for distribution of certain infectious diseases products. Adaltis will supply specific infectious diseases products to Marcy l'Etoile, France-based bioMerieux, which will distribute them through its network in Asia. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said the FDA's Office of Orphan Products Development revoked the orphan drug designation granted in 2002 to ALTU-135 for the treatment of pancreatic insufficiency. The FDA based its decision on a finding that if one includes all patients with HIV/AIDS who suffer from fat malabsorbtion in that indication, the patient population in the U.S. appears to exceed 200,000 and is thus ineligible for orphan designation. Altus said only a subset of patients with HIV/AIDS have fat malabsorbtion due to pancreatic insufficiency and that its original filing was intended to be within the 200,000-person limit for the disease condition. It said it may decide later to refile with a more precisely defined indication, or may conclude the advantages of continuing to seek orphan drug designation are not be warranted.

• ArborGen LLC, of Summerville, S.C., said it is supporting an effort to decode the Eucalyptus genome, with the goal to maximize its potential in the bioenergy market and for capturing excess atmospheric carbon. The effort includes about two dozen institutions worldwide. The DNA sequence of the 600-million-nucleotide tree genome will be generated under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute Community Sequencing Program, and the information will be made freely available over the Internet. ArborGen also is participating in a $125 million U.S. Department of Energy contract for construction of a bioenergy research center that will seek new ways to produce biofuels. A team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee won the bid from the DOE.

• Biogen Idec Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and Elan Corp plc, of Dublin, Ireland, said UK regulatory officials changed an earlier decision and recommended the use of Tysabri in people with highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence made its final appraisal determination after a campaign by the companies and patient groups. It previously had determined the drug was not a cost-effective use of the country's medical resources.

• GNI Ltd., of Tokyo, and BioBase GmbH, of Wolfenbuttel, Germany, formed a technology and business alliance. They will further develop and market Cell Illustrator 3.0, a biological illustration and biopathway modeling software tool that was developed by GNI and the University of Tokyo. BioBase will develop an interface to connect Cell Illustrator to its biological database, which should provide users easier access to pathway information and the ability to use the simulation function.

• Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., of Nutley, N.J., said the FDA approved a supplemental new drug application to market Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) capsules in 30-mg and 45-mg doses. The lower-dose capsules provide an alternative to the existing product, and have a longer shelf life than the liquid suspension formulation. Tamiflu was co-developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif.

• ImaRx Therapeutics Inc., of Tucson, Ariz., and Bracco Imaging SpA, of Milan, Italy, entered a cross-license agreement. Bracco Imaging got worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive rights to certain microbubble compositions for use solely in targeted diagnostic imaging applications. ImaRx got worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive rights to certain microbubble compositions for use solely in therapeutic applications. Terms were not disclosed.

• Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc., of The Woodlands, Texas, said preclinical research demonstrated that antibodies directed to a potential new target, angiopoietin-like protein 4, rapidly lower triglycerides and cholesterol. The work suggest a monoclonal antibody targeting ANGPTL4 may have therapeutic application in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. The results appeared in an article published in the July 10, 2007, edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lexicon first identified ANGPTL4 as a potential target for cardiovascular disease using its gene knockout technology.

• NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Parsippany, N.J., sold its former headquarters in Salt Lake City to the University of Utah and closed the sale of its Mississauga, Ontario, pilot manufacturing and laboratory facility to Transglobe Property Management Services Ltd. It will net about $4 million from the sale of the Ontario facility and about $21 million from the sale of the Utah facility and associated equipment. NPS plans to consolidate its operations at a new headquarters in Bedminster, N.J., later this year.

• Panagene Inc., of Daejeon, South Korea, licensed the right to sell PNA monomers from the Copenhagen Inventor Group. The agreement allows Panagene to synthesize, manufacture and sell peptide nucleic acids monomers for use by researchers. Panagene previously had obtained an exclusive worldwide license under CIG's patents to PNA custom synthesis. PNA are mimics of DNA designed to have properties that confer advantages in certain applications.

• Par Pharmaceutical Cos. Inc., of Woodcliff, N.J., gained exclusive U.S. commercialization rights to the antifungal therapy Loramyc (miconazole Lauriad), from Paris-based BioAlliance Pharma SA. BioAlliance gets an initial payment of $15 million, and would receive $20 million more upon FDA approval. In addition to royalties on sales, BioAlliance also could get sales-based milestone payments. Loramyc, which received marketing authorization in France in October, is an antifungal delivered in a mucoadhesive buccal tablet. An ongoing pivotal Phase III trial of Loramyc involves 540 patients at 40 sites in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. It is testing the drug for treatment of oropharyngeal candidiasis, an opportunistic infection often found in immunocompromised patients.

• ProMetic Life Sciences Inc., of Montreal, said its UK-based subsidiary signed a development contract worth $1.7 million over 12 months with a European plasma fractionator. The program will use prion-binding ligands developed by Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies Inc., a joint venture between ProMetic and the American Red Cross, to minimize the risk of transmission by plasma-derived products of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease.

• Telik Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., was the subject of a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint alleges the company misled investors about the prospects for the cancer drug Telcyta, specifically on data from a Phase III trial. The class period is March 27, 2003, through June 4, 2007.