• Ambrilia Biopharma Inc., of Montreal, entered a licensing and distribution agreement with Teva Europe for the marketing of its improved sustained-release formulation of octreotide for the treatment of acromegaly. No financial terms were disclosed. Teva Europe, a subsidiary of the global generic pharmaceutical leader Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, is octreotide's licensee for France, Germany, Benelux, Spain and Scandinavia. The agreement comprises development, regulatory and sales milestones payments, product supply at fixed price, as well as royalties on sales and agreed upon minimal annual sales. Ambrilia will manufacture the product at its cGMP facility in Montreal, and supply the finished product to its partner for sale in Europe.

• CureMark Inc., of Yonkers, N.Y., signed a licensing and development agreement to use New Hampton, N.Y.-based Balchem Corp.'s novel drug delivery technologies to optimize CureMark's enzyme formulation. Under the agreement, Balchem has granted CureMark an exclusive license for using its patented drug delivery technology, PharmaShure, in all of CureMark's digestive/pancreatic enzyme products.

• Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, of Bad Homburg, Germany, completed its acquisition of worldwide rights to PhosLo (calcium acetate) from Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, of Boca Raton, Fla. The oral phosphate binder is used in end-stage renal disease patients, and its acquisition allows Fresenius to further expand its market position in dialysis-related drugs. The deal includes consideration of up to $150 million in up-front cash, milestone payments and royalties on sales of a new product formulation under development for Nabi, which said PhosLo was no longer strategically aligned with its broader commercialization efforts.

• Inovio Biomedical Corp., of San Diego, granted a worldwide, nonexclusive license to its DNA delivery technology for intratumoral delivery of a gene to control the growth of melanoma and other cancers to VGX Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Blue Bell, Pa. Terms of the deal call for Inovio to receive an up-front license fee and payments based on completion of clinical and regulatory milestones. Inovio will exclusively supply VGX with electroporation devices for the therapy included in the license agreement, and will receive royalties on the sale of products covered by the license.

• Synairgen plc, of Southampton, UK, obtained an exclusive license to intellectual property relating to a peptide for asthma. In preliminary in vitro studies, the peptide has been shown to suppress the effects of both interleukin-4 and interleukin-13, inflammatory proteins considered central to the development of allergic asthma. The discovery was made at the University of Southampton. Financial terms were not disclosed. In related news, Synairgen appointed Phillip Monk as its head of bioscience development. Previously, he directed the respiratory and inflammation biology group at Cambridge Antibody Technology plc, of Cambridge, UK, where he led its development of an interleukin-13 antibody for asthma.

• Tripos Inc., of St. Louis, has decided to exit the discovery research business and instead operate solely as in discovery informatics to continue to provide software and enterprise solutions to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, unless it is able to negotiate and conclude a transaction to sell that business. With respect to its research business, Tripos completed further staffing reductions, is engaged in advanced discussions to sell that U.K.-based segment and remains in the process of selling certain surplus real estate there. The news was released with its third-quarter financial statement, which reflected significantly wider losses and lower revenues than a year ago. On Wednesday, shares in the company (NASDAQ:TRPS) fell 95 cents, or 60.5 percent, to 62 cents.