• Addex Pharmaceuticals SA, of Geneva, said it successfully completed a Phase IIa proof-of-concept trial with its lead compound, ADX10059, in patients with migraine. The 129-patient study in Europe achieved its primary objective, the absence of pain at two hours after dosing, with statistical significance, and also showed trends toward improvement in pain-free status and improvement of migraine pain at other time points. ADX10059 recently demonstrated a potential therapeutic benefit in a Phase IIa study in gastroesophageal reflux disease, and is completing a Phase IIa study in anxiety. ADX10059 is a selective, negative allosteric modulator of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5.

• Avexa Ltd., of Victoria, Australia, completed formalization of the licensing and collaboration agreement with TargetDrug, of Shanghai, China, for a CCR5 HIV drug program. The companies already began the collaborative phase of the agreement aimed at identification of improved clinical candidates from the program. Under the agreement, Avexa has worldwide marketing rights, excluding China, to any drugs that result from the collaboration and retains an exclusive option to license TargetDrug's lead CCR5 inhibitor, nifeviroc. If Avexa exercises that option, it will pay TargetDrug clinical development and sales-based milestones and royalties. Specific terms were not disclosed.

• Bavarian Nordic A/S, of Kvistgard, Denmark, appointed Anders Hedegaard as its new CEO. The company's previous CEO, Peter Wulff, will stay on in corporate management as the head of business development.

• Dundee Cell Products Ltd., of Dundee, Scotland, received seed funding from Discovery Investment Fund Ltd. The company, which licenses cells lines developed at Dundee University, will use the money to set up manufacturing and R&D facilities. DCP has received support from the development agency Scottish Enterprise and the Royal Society of Edinburgh also.

• Eisai Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, said its wholly owned subsidiary, Eisai Corp. of North America, completed its acquisition of Exton, Pa.-based Morphotek Inc. for $325 million after excess net cash. The companies signed the initial agreement in March to add Morphotek to Eisai's global discovery and development research network. Morphotek, which develops therapeutic monoclonal antibodies through the use of its human antibody technologies, Human Morphodoma and Libradoma, has a therapeutic pipeline of antibody leads in cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and infectious disease. Two of its programs are in early stage trials in ovarian and pancreatic cancers.

• MediGene AG, of Munich, Germany, announced that regulatory authorities in Germany, Austria and Spain have accepted the marketing authorization application for Polyphenon E Ointment for review. MediGene expects approval and market launch of the product in those countries during the first six months of 2008. The active substance in Polyphenon E Ointment is a concentrate of catechines that can be applied to genital warts. The drug was approved in the U.S. in October 2006. MediGene's marketing and development partner, Bradley Pharmaceuticals, of Fairfield, N.J., is expected to launch the product in the U.S. in the last six months of 2007.

• ProBioGen AG, of Berlin, and Minapharm, of Cairo, Egypt, signed two separate agreements to develop two therapeutic proteins, one exclusively for Minapharm and another second-generation product for co-promotion. In the first agreement, ProBioGen will apply its cell generation process for biopharmaceutical cell lines and Minapharm, via its subsidiary, Rhein-Minapharm-Biogenetics, will carry out the pertinent process research and development, production and commercialization. The second deal calls for the companies to co-develop a second-generation product using either ProBioGen's pre-optimized CHO cell line or its Human Neuronal Cell Line AGE1.HN. Minapharm will exclusively market the product in Middle Eastern and African countries, while ProBioGen will retain promotional rights in the rest of the world. The companies will share revenue from the product. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

• Proteome Sciences plc, of Cobham, UK, said it will use its Proteoshop proteomics technology to analyze and validate prostate and colon cancer biomarkers discovered by Onconome Inc., of Seattle. In addition to biomarkers already identified, Proteome will undertake new biomarker discovery using material supplied by Onconome.

• ReNeuron Group plc, of Guildford, UK, a foetal stem cell specialist, said it was granted a European patent covering composition, manufacture and use of three neural stem cell lines. The claims cover use of the cell lines for treating stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Creutzfeld-Jacob disease and traumatic brain injury.

• Rosetta Genomics Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, presented updated results on its lead diagnostic development program for cancer of unknown primary (CUP), at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Los Angeles. It presented information on the expansion of its CUP assay to include 15 major cancer types, identifiable through a unique signature of 19 microRNAs with 85 percent accuracy. In addition, it presented data on its methods for extraction and profiling of microRNAs. In other news, Rosetta Genomics has partnered with New York University Medical Center to develop a line of detection diagnostic products for lung and Mesothelioma cancers. The early test targets 45 million Americans who are at increased risk of lung cancer due to smoking, as well as those who have been exposed to asbestos fibers. The test will use Rosetta Genomics' proprietary protocol to extract microRNAs from a blood draw. MicroRNAs are a naturally occurring form of RNAi that act as protein regulators and have the potential to be a new class of diagnostics and therapeutics.

• SkyePharma plc, of London, said regulatory officials in France approved ropinirole prolonged-release tablets, which will be marketed there as Requip, for treating Parkinson's disease. Partner GlaxoSmithKline plc, also of London, also has received approval in Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia and Canada, and plans to gain further marketing authorizations in other countries. SkyePharma on April 13 said the FDA had accepted for filing the application by GSK for approval to market the product in the U.S.

• SynCo Bio Partners, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Prosensa BV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, agreed to collaborate in the formulation and fill of RNA-based therapeutics for Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. The agreement involves Prosensa's lead product, an RNA-based drug under development for DMD. Terms call for SynCo to work with Prosensa to formulate and perform the aseptic fill of the product for use in a human trial. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• UK Trade and Investment, a government group, is hosting a delegation from the Brazilian biotech industry this week to meet companies, with the aim of forming collaborations. Brazil is the 11th largest market for pharmaceuticals, and the Brazilian government has plans to invest $4.8 billion in the industry over the next 10 years.

• ValiRx plc, of London, announced that its subsidiary, Cronos Therapeutics Ltd., completed experiments demonstrating that the gene-silencing technology GeneICE binds to its predicted genetic target. The preclinical research, which is part of an effort to confirm the drug's mechanism of action, was conducted in collaboration with ATDBio Ltd., of Southampton, UK.

• VASTox plc, of Oxford, UK, said the European Patent Office has granted a patent covering screening methods employing zebrafish to discover drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier. The patent indicates the existence of a functional blood-brain barrier in zebrafish and gives VASTox rights to use this physiological feature for the discovery and development of new medicines.

• Vivalis, of Nantes, France, and GeoVax Inc., of Atlanta, extended their April 2005 collaboration to evaluate the use of Vivalis' avian embryonic stem cell-derived EBx cell lines as a production platform for GeoVax's MVA-based AIDS vaccine. The collaboration already has proven that the EBx technology can replicate GeoVax's specific recombinant AIDS vaccine viruses, and it will now focus on scale-up and regulatory requirements for an early 2008 pre-IND meeting. Terms were not disclosed.