• Chromos Molecular Systems Inc., of Burnaby, British Columbia, said it has insufficient financial resources to meet all its existing creditor obligations, and has filed a notice of intention to make a proposal under bankruptcy and insolvency laws. That notice allows Chromos to maintain scaled-back operations and the integrity of its assets while evaluating strategic alternatives and developing a restructuring proposal for creditors. As part of the scaling back of operations, Chromos provided temporary layoff notices to 12 of its 25 employees. Chromos recently announced that a planned financing and a potential partnership for its lead product, CHR-1103, both fell through. CHR-1103 is a humanized monoclonal antibody being developed for relapses associated with multiple sclerosis. It also has ACE System technology for engineering cell lines used in the manufacture of biopharmaceutical products.

• Clinical Data Inc., of Newton, Mass., entered an agreement for its Cogenics service division to offer the DNA methylation services of Epigenomics AG, of Berlin. Its portfolio of DNA methylation services include genome-wide DNA methylation analysis, bisulfite sequencing and real-time PCR technologies. Additionally, Epigenomics will promote Cogenics' pharmacogenomics and molecular biology services to its DNA methylation biomarker development partners and customers.

• EPIX Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., said it was advised by the Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council that it regained compliance with listing requirements, and that the company is eligible to continue to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market. The company's annual report for 2006 was delayed as a result of EPIX's review of past stock option practices. All of the stock option grants requiring adjustment were granted during the years 1997 through 2005, which predates the company's merger with Predix Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc., it said. The restated numbers filed Tuesday did not affect previously reported revenue or cash positions in any of the restated periods and related exclusively to stock option practices, it said.

• Expression Analysis Inc., of Durham, N.C., said the Environmental Protection Agency awarded it a contract for genomic services in the agency's ToxCast Program. The program is designed to provide an efficient, science-based prioritization of environmental chemicals for more detailed toxicological evaluations. The company will provide gene expression and genotyping services using microarrays from Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., and Illumina Inc., of San Diego, as well as TaqMan PCR assays from Applied Biosystems Inc., of Foster City, Calif.

• Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, generated earnings per share of 74 cents for the first quarter ended March 31, far exceeding consensus estimates of 67 cents per share. Those earnings equaled $792 million in net income, a 61 percent increase from last year's first quarter. Operating revenues totaled more than $2.8 billion, a 43 percent increase over the corresponding three months from last year. All those numbers are reported on a non-adjusted basis. The company's top-selling drug was Rituxan (rituximab), which generated $535 million in sales. Already indicated for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis, a supplemental biologics license application recently was filed to broaden its RA usage. Genentech's other top-selling drug was Avastin (bevacizumab), producing $533 million in sales, representing 34 percent growth over the year-earlier first quarter. Other revenue drivers included Herceptin (trastuzumab), with $311 million in sales; Lucentis (ranibizumab), which generated $211 million in sales; Xolair (omalizumab), with sales of $111 million; and Tarceva (erlotinib), which produced $102 million in sales. The company, which closed the quarter with about $2.9 billion in cash reserves and just under 1.1 billion shares outstanding, forecasted full-year earnings per share growth to range between 25 percent and 30 percent. Analysts who follow Genentech were in line with such expectations and advised buying its stock.

• Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., of Philadelphia, said the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan authorized budget allocations to advance studies of an H5N1 influenza vaccine co-administered intranasally with Hemispherx's therapeutic double-stranded RNA Ampligen. Hemispherx has been collaborating with the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan on animal studies. Studies, expected to be conducted over three years, initially will focus on efficacy and stability as it pertains to the formulation of the vaccine and the Ampligen adjuvant.

• Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington Mass., will exchange 1.1337 shares of its common stock for each share of common stock in Valera Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cranbury, N.J., in a proposed $120 million buyout. In addition, Valera shareholders will receive three contingent stock rights for each of their Valera shares that will become convertible into $1, $1 and $1.50, respectively, worth of Indevus stock upon the achievement of particular milestones with respect to three Valera product candidates in development. Each company will hold a special stockholder meeting next week to approve matters relating to the transaction, which was first reported late last year. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 13, 2006.)

• Phylonix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., has been awarded a two-year contract for up to $4.3 million from the Environmental Protection Agency as part of the agency's ToxCast project to correlate compounds having known toxicities with biological activities in a zebrafish test system. The initial goal for the Phylonix component of the ToxCast program is to correlate compounds having known toxicities with biological activities in zebrafish test systems. Numerous mechanisms and effects of toxicity will be studied, including central nervous system, cardiovascular system and digestive system development/toxicity.

• Transgenomic Inc., of Omaha, Neb., said it would provide instrument service and consumables support in the U.S. and other areas for products of Spectrumedix LLC, of State College, Pa., and continue offering them to Spectrumedix customers in Europe. Spectrumedix has ceased operations. In addition, Transgenomic acquired certain assets from Spectrumedix's court-appointed receiver and a license from the gel patent holder necessary to manufacture consumables for the systems, but financial terms were not disclosed.

• Viropro Inc., of Montreal, and Invitrogen Corp., of Carlsbad, Calif., entered a collaboration under which Invitrogen is testing and helping to develop innovative production technologies. A goal is to develop new solutions for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through the integration of Viropro's protein production technology and Invitrogen's media and cell line development expertise. Terms were not disclosed.