• Caprion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Montreal, said its Applied BioMedicine group entered a clinical biomarker discovery collaboration with Cambridge, Mass.-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Caprion will use its CellCarta proteomics platform to identify potential pharmacodynamic biomarkers in samples from certain clinical and preclinical studies conducted by Vertex. Financial terms were not disclosed. Genizon BioSciences Inc., of Montreal, closed a $12.4 million first tranche of a secured convertible debenture financing. The funding will be used to add to the company’s inventory of GeneMaps, comprehensive maps of genes, biochemical pathways and drug targets involved in causing human disease. Investors in the round were HBM BioVentures, Biofund Management, MVI Finance and Carnegie, as well as San Diego-based Illumina Inc., a biotech tools company partnered with Genizon.

• Depomed Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., and Madaus Srl, of Padova, Italy, said the marketing authorization application for ProQuin XR was accepted for review by the Medical Products Agency in Sweden. Madaus submitted the MAA earlier this year, seeking approval to treat uncomplicated urinary tract infections. ProQuin XR is a once-daily, prolonged release formulation of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride.

• ExonHit Therapeutics SA, of Paris, and bioMérieux SA, of Marcy l’Etoile, France, will report breast cancer diagnostic data at next week’s American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, showing that a panel of genetic signatures identified by ExonHit clearly can distinguish healthy women from those with early stage breast cancer. A total of 54 genes were able to correctly classify - with 86.7 percent accuracy - 55 women with Stage I/II breast cancer from a group of 92 women. The remaining 37 were healthy. A prospective multicenter study in 1,000 women is under way to validate the specificity and selectivity of the markers identified. In the companies’ three-year-old collaboration, ExonHit will receive research and development payments from bioMérieux as well as development milestone payments for each diagnostic project. ExonHit also would receive royalties.

• Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery Institute, of Albuquerque, N.M., and the National Center for Genome Resources, of Santa Fe, N.M., established a research partnership to identify the genetic basis of schizophrenia. Called the Schizophrenia Genome Project, it will combine resources and expertise from both centers to identify predisposition and protection genes. Investigators will identify common schizophrenia genes by sequencing and analyzing the 3 billion base pairs of DNA in entire genetic code of affected individuals to identify all mutation candidates; schizophrenia genes will be confirmed by comparing these candidate mutations in both affected and normal individuals.

• MorphoSys AG, of Munich, Germany, raised about €17.1 million (US$20.6 million) to expand the research antibody side of its business. The company placed 384,338 shares to international institutional investors, at €44.50 per share. WestLB AG acted as lead manager of the transaction, and DZ Bank AG acted as co-lead manager. MorphoSys’ cash balance is about €60 million.

• Seattle Genetics Inc., of Bothell, Wash., intends to issue and sell 7.3 million shares of common stock in an underwritten public offering as part of a shelf registration statement. Banc of America Securities LLC and CIBC World Markets will act as joint book-running managers for the offering. In addition, Seattle Genetics has agreed to sell 1.1 million shares of common stock to investment funds affiliated with Baker Brothers Investments, which will pay a price per share equal to the price paid by the investors in the underwritten offering.

• Tm Bioscience Corp., of Toronto, and Luminex Corp., of Austin, Texas, signed a multiyear extension of their partnership, granting Tm rights to commercialize DNA-based molecular diagnostics that operate on Luminex’s xMAP technology platform. The original agreement was expiring at the end of this month, so the renegotiated agreement incorporates similar terms to the original, including the ability for Tm to distribute Luminex’s xMAP systems such as the new LX200 instrument. Assays from Tm employ the Luminex xMAP technology platform, and combined, the Universal Array and Luminex instrument are used for performing clinical-grade multiplexed genetic tests.