Company* (Country; Symbol)

Company* (Country; Symbol)

Type/Product Area

Terms/Details (Date)


Asuragen Inc.*

Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MLNM)

Agreement for Asuragen to provide laboratory testing to assist in gene expression studies being conducted by Millennium

Terms were not disclosed (5/29)

BioSeek Inc.*

Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMLN)

Partnership focused on the potential of peptides against inflammatory disease

Deal includes a $10M investment for BioSeek (5/22)

BG Medicine Inc.* indicator of congestive heart failure

ACS Biomarker BV* (the Netherlands)

Agreement granting BG rights to develop and commercialize a biomarker- based molecular diagnostic test as a prognostic

BG has an exclusive, worldwide sublicense from ACS to rights owned by the University of Maastricht and the Academic Hospital Maastricht relating to galectin-3 and another blood-plasma biomarker (5/23)

Crucell NV (the Netherlands; CRXL) and Royal Pharma DSM NV (the Netherlands)

Sartorius Biotech GmbH (Germany; FSE:SRT)

Nonexclusive PER.C6 research licensing deal

Sartorius will use the technology to evaluate monoclonal antibodies produced using PER.C6 cells for calibrating and testing equipment products useful in the manufacture and/or purification of recombinant monoclonal antibodies (6/5)

Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc. (COLY)

3M Co. (NYSE:MMM)

Agreement to acquire TLR7 and TLR8 programs from 3M

Coley will make four cash payments of $5M each over the next three years; 3M also may receive regulatory milestone payments and single-digit royalties (6/12)

Danube Pharmaceuticals Inc.*

Aptuit Inc.*

Deal in which Aptuit will provide Danube with a full range of drug development services

The agreement will employ five of Aptuit's facilities to develop and manufacture Danube's investigational compound to support upcoming Phase II studies (6/4)

Evotec AG (Germany; FSE:EVT) Pharmaceuticals Pte. Ltd.*)

Combinature Biopharm (a unit of MerLion magnetic resonance screening as well as access to the SAR-by- NMR intellectual property

Agreement under which Evotec acquired equipment and expertise in nuclear

Evotec plans to integrate the technologies with its high-throughput, high-concentration biochemical assay approach (6/13)

Exact Sciences Corp. (EXAS)

NorDiag ASA (Norway; OSLO: NORD)

Agreement to advance the development and com- mercialization of colorectal cancer screening tech- nologies outside the U.S. and Canada

Exact extended a nonexclusive license to its DIA technology and related know-how to NorDiag for commercializing such tests in Europe, Japan and Australia; NorDiag will pay a licensing fee and royalties (6/5)

Favrille Inc. (FVRL)

Diversa Corp. (DVSA)

Agreement for Favrille to acquire a series of optimized anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies from Diversa

Favrille gains rights to antibodies optimized with Diversa technology, along with the corresponding patents and an exclusive, royalty-free license to selected pending patents for commercialization of the panel (6/12)

GenomeQuest Inc.*

ARYx Therapeutics Inc.*

Agreement to provide its GenomeQuest archive of close to 67M patented sequences to ARYx

ARYx will use the technology to evaluate new gene sequences (6/5)

Materia Inc.*

Eisai Co. Ltd. (Japan; FSE:EII)

Nonexclusive licensing agreement to Materia's metathesis platform

Eisai gained rights to discover, develop and patent pharmaceutical compounds and related processes using Materia's catalysts and associated intellectual property (6/20)

Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MIPI)

NeoRx Manufacturing Group Inc. (subsidiary of Poniard Pharmaceuticals Inc.; PARD)

Purchase agreement to buy a commercial-scale radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facility

Molecular Insight is acquiring the facility from NeoRx for $3M (5/18)

Morphotek Inc.*

CMB Biopharma- ceuticals* (Denmark)

Agreement for development, manufacturing and regulatory documentation support of MORAb-028, an antibody targeting advanced melanoma and other cancers

The compound is ready to enter clinical development in 2008 (5/21)

Neuronascent Inc.*

Lifeline Cell Technology LLC (unit of International Stem Cell Corp.; OTC BB:ISCO)

Licensing agreement for certain animal cells

It covers the exclusive, worldwide rights to market, sell and distribute adult Arctic ground squirrel neural stem cells for research use; Neuronascent is entitled to license fees and royalty payments (5/29)

Oxford Gene Technology* (UK)

Aushon BioSystems*

Agreement for access to OGT's Southern array patents, which cover the manufacture and marketing of oligonucleotide microarrays

The license will remain valid for the patents' lifetime (6/12)

Par Pharmaceutical Cos. Inc. (NYSE:PRX)

Immtech Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMEX:IMM)

Exclusive rights agreement in the U.S. to a Phase III drug to treat pneumocystis pneumonia in AIDS patients

Par is paying Immtech $3M up front; the deal includes up to $29M in milestone payments through FDA approval, up to $115M in milestones based on sales, and royalties on sales; Par gets exclusive rights to DB289, pafuramidine maleate (6/12)

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. (PPHM)

Dios Therapeutics Inc.*

Collaboration under which Peregrine will provide process development and manufacturing services and know-how to support early clinical development of Dios' humanized monoclonal antibody to treat thyroid-associated ophthalmo- pathy, a severe form of Grave's disease

Peregrine has the option to convert its development fees into either cash or equity in Dios; it also could receive royalties and Dios would have the option to buy out the royalty obligations for $50M (5/31)

ProBioGen AG* (Germany)

Virbac SA (France; PARIS: VIRP)

Licensing agreement for designer avian cell lines to Virbac

Virbac will use the cell lines based on duck retina AGE1.cr and somite cells AGE1.cs as the production platform to develop biologicals (5/31)

ProMetic BioTherapeutics Inc. (unit of ProMetic Life Sciences Inc.; Canada; TSX:PLI)

Blue Blood Biotech Corp.* (Taiwan)

Alliance to develop drugs derived from human plasma using ProMetic's manufacturing process

The partnership initially will target hyper- immune Cytomegalovirus, as well as two other high value therapeutics, with Taiwan and Southeast Asia as the primary markets (7/11)

Quest Group International Inc. (OTC BB:QSTG)

Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc.*

Licensing agreement for retinoic acid receptor agonists and antagonists, as well as a rexinoid small molecule

One compound is ready to enter Phase II testing for acute leukemia; another will be evaluated for safety in common cancers; and a third will be developed to reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy (5/18)

Sciele Pharma Inc. (SCRX)

Plethora Solutions Holdings plc (UK; LSE:PLE)

Agreement for exclusive U.S. rights from Plethora to PSD502, which is in Phase II trials for premature ejaculation

Sciele is purchasing a $7M equity stake in Plethora, which is entitled to milestone payments and royalties; Plethora also will have co-promotion rights for urologists in the U.S. (5/24)

Synosia Therapeutics*

Syngenta AG (Switzerland; NYSE:SYT)

License agreement to develop a potential treatment of Parkinson's disease

The compound, SYN-118, is approved in the U.S. and Europe for the metabolic disorder hereditary tyrosinemia Type I; Synosia will be responsible for ongoing clinical development and commercialization, while Syngenta is eligible for milestones and royalties (5/22)

Transgenomic Inc. (OTC BB:TBIO)

Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Transition Technologies Inc.*

Collaboration for the development of novel molecular PCR-based assays for the detection of animal materials that have been banned from cattle feed

The project is a means to verify enforcement of Canada's feed controls (6/14)

Vegenics Ltd.*

CoGenesys Inc.*

Licensing agreement for exclusive worldwide rights to human monoclonal antibodies that target vascular endothelial growth factor-C

Terms were not disclosed (6/18)

Notes:

* Private companies are indicated with an asterisk; ** Denotes the date the item ran in BioWorld International.

Unless otherwise notes, the trading symbols listed for public biotechnology companies are on the Nasdaq market.

AMEX = American Stock Exchange; FSE = Frankfurt Stock Exchange; LSE = London Stock Exchange; NYSE = New York Stock Exchange; OTC BB = Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board; TSX = Toronto Stock Exchange.