• Crucell NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, signed a pair of licensing agreements with Korean biopharmaceutical company BIOA&D Co. Ltd. The first relates to the use of Crucell's PER.C6 technology in the production of adenoviral vectors expressing ceNOS for cardiovascular disease. The parties also have signed an agreement that allows BIOA&D to use Crucell's ceNOS gene therapy technology. BIOA&D will pay a signing fee, annual maintenance fees and milestone payments upon commercialization.

• Cytomedix Inc., of Rockville, Md., entered a $2.6 million licensing agreement with Biomet Biologics Inc., a subsidiary of Biomet Inc., of Warsaw, Ind., a manufacturer and marketer of musculoskeletal products for surgical and non-surgical therapies. Cytomedix will receive a total of $2.6 million via an immediate payment of $1.4 million and $100,000 each quarter for the next three years. Cytomedix also gets royalty-free licenses to certain Biomet patents related to platelet gel products. In exchange, Cytomedix has granted to Biomet a worldwide nonexclusive license under its key "Knighton" patent (US Patent No. 5,165,938 and corresponding patents in other countries) for all applications of its autologous platelet releasate therapy except for use in chronic, non-healing wounds.

• Debiopharm Group, of Lausanne, Switzerland, and TcLand SA, of Nantes, France, signed an exclusive in-licensing option agreement for the development of the fusion protein sc28AT, a CD28 antagonist in preclinical studies. Debiopharm will invest equity into TcLand and fund the research and development of sc28AT conducted by TcLand up to an investigational new drug application. Upon exercise of its exclusive option to in-license the molecule, Debiopharm will fully manage and fund further development activities of sc28AT, up to at least completion of Phase II, before out-licensing to sales and marketing partners. TcLand gets milestone payments and royalties.

• Dyax Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., granted a nonexclusive license for its phage display libraries to ICOS Corp., of Bothell, Wash., for the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies. Dyax receives technology license fees and is entitled to clinical milestone payments and royalties for any products that result from the license. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

• Ecopia BioSciences Inc., of Montreal, said it decided to withdraw the preliminary short prospectus filed April 10 for a proposed public offering in Canada due to market conditions. Size and pricing of the offering had not been determined. Proceeds had been expected to support research and development activities, including the development of ECO-4601, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

• Monogram Biosciences Inc., of South San Francisco, said it closed its $25 million investment by New York-based Pfizer Inc. at the previously set $2.7048 conversion price of the convertible note. The price is a 20 percent premium to the average closing price of Monogram common stock during the five trading days preceding the issuance of the note. The investment was part of an agreement by Pfizer to globally license Monogram's HIV Co-Receptor Tropism Assay to aid in the clinical development of its CCR5 antagonist maraviroc. (See BioWorld Today, May 9, 2006.)

• TopoTarget A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, has exercised its option to purchase a drug program under the agreement entered in late 2005 with BioImage A/S, also of Copenhagen. The deal gives TopoTarget full ownership of TOP216, an mTOR anticancer compound in preclinical development. Covered under the program is a class of small molecules which act via the mTOR signaling pathway.