• Allergy Therapeutics plc, of Worthing, UK, said it concluded an end of Phase II meeting with the FDA for its ultra short course allergy vaccine Pollinex Quattro Ragweed for treating seasonal allergic rhinitis due to ragweed pollen exposure. The FDA has accepted the company's plans to conduct a single pivotal Phase III trial for registration.

• Amarin Corporation plc, of London, said it completed of the treatment phase of both the North American and European Phase III clinical trials with Miraxion for the treatment of Huntington's disease (HD). The multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials enrolled more than 600 patients, the largest clinical program ever undertaken in HD. The company expects to report top-line results in mid-second quarter 2007.

• Ark Therapeutics Group plc, of London, was awarded a European Commission grant of €2.5 million (US$3.2 million) to fund a consortium of commercial and academic collaborators to carry out further research into the use of insect-derived baculoviruses (BVs) as vectors for gene therapy. The Baculogenes project aims to develop clinical-grade methods for the development, production, testing and validation of stabilized and selective BV vectors for gene medicine applications. Target diseases for in vivo gene delivery with BVs include muscle disorders, age-related macular degeneration and prostate cancer.

• Bavarian Nordic A/S, of Kvistgard, Denmark, and GlaxoSmithKline, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., have agreed to end their collaboration to produce and market IMVAMUNE, a third-generation smallpox vaccine. The two originally signed a deal in 2004 to ensure sufficient production capacity before Bavarian Nordic opened its new production facility. Termination of the agreement will have no negative financial impacts on Nordic or GSK.

• BioAlliance Pharma SA, of Paris, increased the proportion of its capital in free float on the Paris stock exchange to 40 percent through a private placement of 970,000 shares, equivalent to 11.2 percent of its equity, with French, British and American institutional investors. BioAlliance went public in December 2005 through an IPO at an offer price of €13.30 per share, which valued the company at about €110 million, since then the share price has not moved significantly.

• Biofusion plc, of Sheffield, UK, a quoted technology management company, announced the launch of a new portfolio company, Absynth Biologics Ltd., which will develop vaccines and antibodies to treat Staphylococcus aureus infections, including the methicillin-resistant form, MRSA. Biofusion will invest up to £325,000 (US$636,285) enabling Absynth to produce lead vaccine and therapeutic antibody candidates.

• Bionest Partners, of Paris, announced the creation of Bionest MPV, a new valuation method designed to provide a quick analysis of loss-making, research-based companies by screening information available on their websites. MPV, which stands for Market Pipeline Value, is based on a benchmark approach comparing the pipelines of publicly listed companies. Bionest Partners, a provider of advisory and management services to life science companies, thus aims to furnish investors with easy-to-use tools for evaluating biotech companies and facilitating the selection of investment opportunities.

• Biovitrum AB, of Stockholm, Sweden, entered an agreement with Synphora AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, in the fall for a new drug candidate, JB991, for psoriasis and other conditions. JB991 is a prostaglandin derivative that was developed by Synphora. Synphora is fully responsible for the studies of JB991 through the completion of Phase IIa. Biovitrum will provide financing for the Phase II study. In exchange for investment, Biovitrum will have the opportunity to acquire the project after Phase IIa. A Phase II trial of this drug candidate is now under way, and the results are expected to be known during second half of 2007. The Phase II study involves 25-30 patients. The Phase II trial is a dose-response study and is being conducted at the Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala. The results should be available in 2007.

• Cancer Research Technology Ltd. (CRT), of London, the technology transfer arm of the charity Cancer research UK, said Waypharm SA, of La Roi, France, agreed to license Thioplatin, a novel hypoxia-responsive platinum-based cancer therapy. CRT granted Waypharm an exclusive six-month option to worldwide development and commercialization rights and will receive an up-front payment plus agreed licensing fees, development-related milestones and royalty payments. The Thioplatin program stems from research conducted by Eberhard Amtmann of the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), of Heidelberg, Germany, and Gerhard Schilling of the University of Heidelberg, who have developed platinum compounds that display enhanced activity under the hypoxic conditions of solid tumors. Such tumor selectivity could allow the administration of higher doses without the usual side effects. A lead compound, TP-2, has been selected, and Waypharm will optimize a liposomal formulation for Phase I trials.

• Cilian AG, of Munster, Germany, received a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the BioChance Plus program. Funds will be used for development of a low-cost expression system for the production of biopharmaceuticals. The grant amount was not disclosed.

• CMC Biopharmaceuticals A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, entered a deal to manufacture the BT-062 antibody for Biotest AG, of Dreieich, Germany. The antibody is being developed for treating multiple myeloma. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• Cobra Biomanufacturing plc, of Keele, UK, said it will manufacture Phase I supplies of a protein vaccine PX107 for treating bone disorders, for Pharmexa AB, of Horsholm, Denmark. The program will include cell banking, process development and GMP manufacture. PX107 induces a response to a protein RANKL, which is increased or imbalanced in diseases such as osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and bone metastases.

• Compute Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel, agreed to collaborate with Jerusalem-based Tea Pharmaceutical Industries to discover biomarkers for the detection of drug toxicity in preclinical stages of drug development. The initial focus of the project will be on biomarkers for potential nephrotoxicity, and the companies may jointly choose to expand the collaboration to include biomarkers for hepatotoxicity and/or cardiotoxicity detection. Under the terms, Compugen granted Teva a license to use the discovered markers for research and development while retaining commercialization rights for licensing to other companies and for internal use.

• Crucell NV, of Leiden, The Netherlands, has signed a nonexclusive STAR research license agreement for the production of monoclonal antibodies with Abbott Park, Ill.-based Abbott Laboratories. Under the agreement, Abbott would evaluate Crucell's STAR technology for generating cell lines for manufacture of biopharmaceuticals. Financial details were not disclosed.

• Debiopharm Group, of Lausanne, Switzerland, entered an exclusive agreement with Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, for Debio-0719, an inhibitor of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) signaling in early preclinical development for local and metastatic cancer. Debiopharm will fully manage and fund the product's development before out-licensing to sales and marketing partners in all territories outside of Asia, where Kirin will maintain development and commercialization rights. Kirin will receive milestone payments and royalties based on Debiopharm's revenues from worldwide sales.

• Galapagos NV, of Mechelen, Belgium, said it granted Hillcrest Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, worldwide rights to develop its PPAR-delta technology in all fields. PPAR-delta, a drug discovery program addressing diabetes and obesity, has reached the stage of candidate drug selection. Galapagos is entitled to €770,000 in license fees, up to €27 million (US$35 million) in milestones, undisclosed milestone payments in Hillcrest equity and single-digit royalties on any resulting sales. Galapagos got the PPAR-delta technology, a regulator of metabolism control, through its acquisition of Inpharmatica Ltd. in December. Hillcrest, founded in 2006, is a portfolio company of Paramount BioSciences LLC.

• ImVision GmbH, of Hanover, Germany, gained European patents for its Modular antigen-transporter-molecules for modulating immune responses (MAT molecules) and its Intralymphatic Immunotherapy (ILIT) delivery technology, which it uses in the development of new allergy therapeutics. It also gained an Australian patent for the ILIT technology. The company, which purchased U.S. rights to ILIT from Valencia, Calif.-based MannKind Corp. in 2006, is currently seeking a U.S. patent to the MAT technology. The company claims that its method of targeting allergens to the lymph node greatly reduces the number of injections required to achieve desensitization.

• Innate Pharma SA, of Marseille, France, announced that Clinical Data Inc., of Newton, Mass., launched a pharmacogenetic test under the terms of the license agreement signed between the two companies last November. The test, PGxPredict:RITUXIMAB, is designed to help physicians predict the likelihood of a given patient responding to rituximab monotherapy in the treatment of follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). The test is based on the determination of variants of the gene coding for the Fc-gamma-IIIA receptor, for which Innate Pharma owns exclusive intellectual property rights. Earlier studies had indicated that a test based on this receptor predicted how 90 percent of patients suffering from NHL would respond to rituximab (marketed as Rituxan by Genentech/Biogen-Idec and as MabThera by Hoffmann-La Roche). Innate Pharma points out that, while it is eligible for royalties on the sale of the PGxPredict:RITUXIMAB test, it will not have any significant impact on its revenues or earnings in the short term.

• Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, said a minority shareholder in its Sinovac China Biotech Co. Ltd. subsidiary, China Bioway Biotech Group Co. Ltd., also of Beijing, has recently received Chinese government approvals to restructure China Bioway's equity interest in Sinovac China. The proposed restructuring contemplates China Bioway transferring its equity interest to an offshore company and eventually exchanging this equity interest for shares in Sinovac Biotech.

• Syntopix Group plc, of Leeds, UK, signed an agreement with a CRO to prepare its first phase I clinical trial of SYN0017, an anti-oxidant present in a number of food and cosmetic preparations, SYN0401, an antimicrobial ingredient in personal health care products, and a synergistic combination of SYN0017 and SYN0016, a well-known anti-acne ingredient, to confirm their antimicrobial activity in treating acne. The study highlights the company's strategy of reducing risk by concentrating on the change of use and novel combinations of known compounds.