• Advanced Viral Research Corp., of Yonkers, N.Y., completed enrollment in the first part of the Phase I study with AVR118 in Type II diabetic patients. In this study, 30 subjects being treated with sulfonylureas and/or metformin, were expected to be enrolled. The primary objective was to explore the effect of daily doses 4.0 ml of AVR118 given subcutaneously on blood glucose, as compared to subjects not receiving AVR118. All 30 subjects have been enrolled. The compound is a peptide-nucleic acid complex that appears to stimulate a pro-inflammatory response and dampen aberrant autoimmune-type inflammatory responses.

• Neoprobe Corp., of Dublin, Ohio, said the FDA removed its clinical hold for a Phase II study of Lymphoseek, a lymphatic tissue-targeting agent, and the company plans to start enrolling patients in June. The trial would involve up to 80 patients and be conducted under amended Phase II protocol. Lymphoseek is intended to be used in biopsy procedures for the detection of lymph nodes in breast and melanoma cancers.

• PeriCor Therapeutics Inc., of New York, said a study of its cardioprotective agent acadesine demonstrated the drug's ability to prolong long-term survival in those patients who suffer heart attacks following heart bypass surgery. Among patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery who suffered post-reperfusion myocardial infarction, mortality after two years was reduced by 77 percent with acadesine treatment. The study, titled "Post-Reperfusion Myocardial Infarction: Long-Term Survival Improvement Using Adenosine Regulation with Acadesine," was published online May 9 by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

• PTC Therapeutics Inc., of South Plainfield, N.J., began a Phase Ia trial of PTC299 in healthy volunteers to determine a dose range that is well tolerated and achieves pharmacological active plasma concentrations. If that trial is successful, PTC expects to initiate further trials of PTC299, a small molecule designed to target post-transcriptional control processes, in solid tumor cancer patients.

• Tercica Inc., of Brisbane, Calif., offered updated safety and efficacy data from 321 patient-years of treatment with U.S.-approved Increlex (mecasermin) from long-term studies in children with severe primary IGF-1 deficiency at the Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society 2006 Annual Convention. Tercica submitted the updated data set, which was presented for the first time at PENS, as part of its application for approval to market Increlex in the European Union.