• Adolor Corp., of Exton, Pa., said that Bruce Peacock, the company's president and CEO, will resign effective Aug. 7, and that David Madden, the current chairman, was elected interim president and CEO. Madden joined the company as a director in January 2000 and was elected chairman in May. Adolor specializes in the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription pain-management products.

• CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newtown, Pa., said that results from a Phase II trial evaluating COL-3 as a treatment for rosacea were presented on July 30 at the summer meeting of the North Carolina Dermatology Association. COL-3 is a second-generation compound from the company's Impacs technology (inhibitors of multiple proteases and cytokines) and has demonstrated a range of anti-inflammatory activities in various preclinical and clinical studies, the company said.

• Computer Sciences Corp., of El Segundo, Calif., said its company, DVC LLC, entered a Phase I trial for its Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) vaccine, V3526. The study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine in healthy volunteers. VEE is a mosquito-borne viral disease that causes encephalitis in horses and humans.

• CytoGenix Inc., of Houston, said a recently published study demonstrated that one of its antimicrobial compounds is effective in reducing bacterial load and inflammatory products associated with sepsis in a mouse infection model. The paper, titled "Peptide Nucleic Acid Antisense Oligomer as a Therapeutic Strategy Against Bacterial Infection: Proof of Principle Using Mouse Intraperitoneal Infection," was published in the August issue of American Society of Microbiology.

• Elusys Therapeutics Inc., of Pine Brook, N.J., was awarded an additional $5.4 million from the U.S. government for the continued development of Anthim, its antibody therapeutic for the prevention and treatment of anthrax infection. The round includes $4.4 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and $1 million from the Department of Defense. To date, Elusys has received more than $20 million from the U.S. government to develop therapeutics against bioterror agents.

• ImaRx Therapeutics Inc., of Tucson, Ariz., received a $1.1 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., for the development of targeted nanobubbles that can be used in conjunction with ultrasound for NanoInvasive treatment of vascular clots.

• Institute for the Study of Aging in New York, a public charity, created a new research award program titled "Novel Approaches to Drug Discovery for Alzheimer's Disease" that is being made possible through a donation from Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc., part of Elan Corp plc, of Dublin, Ireland, and funds from the institute. The goal of the three-year program is to catalyze and fund academic and biotechnology industry scientists worldwide to conduct research leading to the discovery of effective therapies for Alzheimer's disease.

• Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., said its Ibis division was awarded a $4.9 million government grant for its TIGER (Triangulation Identification for Genetic Evaluation of Risks) biosensor system to develop applications to diagnose infectious diseases and to identify and control hospital-associated infections. The grant was received from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. As part of the three-year grant, Ibis will work with the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, ARUP Laboratories and Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute to test and validate the TIGER biosensor system.

• Living Cell Technologies Ltd., of Providence, R.I., said preclinical results show that its brain protection product, NeurotrophinCell, produces a reduction in the size of brain lesions in a Huntington's disease model. Results reveal that brain cell damage in primates treated with NtCell was five times less affected by the disease than the control animals.

• MediciNova Inc., of San Diego, said is started enrollment of patients in a Phase II trial of MN-166 to treat multiple sclerosis. MN-166 is an orally administered drug that inhibits phosphodiesterase IV. MediciNova holds exclusive rights from Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, to develop and commercialize MN-166 for MS everywhere except Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea.

• Myogen Inc., of Denver, saw its shares jump 21.6 percent Tuesday, following the release of its second-quarter earnings. Though the company recorded a net loss of $21.5 million, or 60 cents per share, for the second quarter, its stock was upgraded from "buy" to "strong buy" by New York-based First Albany Capital. Myogen expects to begin releasing top-line results from its two late-stage small-molecule candidates: ambrisentan, for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, and darusentan, for the treatment of resistant systolic hypertension. The company expects results from the first of its two pivotal trials of ambrisentan before the end of the year. The second Phase III study is scheduled to complete enrollment in the fourth quarter, with top-line results to be announced about six months later. Myogen initiated a Phase IIb study of darusentan in July, and expects to present results by the end of this month. As of June 30, the company had $88.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments. Shares of Myogen (NASDAQ:MYOG) closed at $13.55, up $2.41.

• Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, said enrollment is proceeding on schedule for its Phase III trial of Flurizan in patients with mild stages of Alzheimer's disease. Myriad expects to complete enrollment for the 12-month study during the first half of 2006, and anticipates reporting results in the third quarter of 2007.

• OriGene Technologies Inc., of Rockville, Md., licensed its FlagArray platform for high-throughput drug target discovery to Eisai London Research Laboratories. The platform consists of expression-ready arrays of full-length cDNA plasmids for use in high-throughput, genome-wide target identification and validation. The arrays allow scientists to query thousands of genes and their roles in disease phenotypes and pathways.

• Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery Inc., of Princeton, N.J., closed an about $8.5 million private placement of 2.5 million common shares to institutional investors. Jefferies & Co. Inc. acted as financial adviser and sole placement agent. Proceeds will go toward advancing the company's internal therapeutic programs focused on immunobiology and immunological diseases.

• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, of Memphis, Tenn., said a gene better known for its role in preventing cancer also plays a role in the developing embryo, where the gene prevents excessive growth of blood vessels. The gene, called Arf, prevents the accumulation of certain cells, called pericytes, which nurture the growth of blood vessels in the eye during embryonic development. Arf also works with p53 to trigger apoptosis in cells that have become cancerous.

• United Therapeutics Corp., of Silver Spring, Md., surged on better-than-expected sales of its pulmonary arterial hypertension drug, Remodulin. Total revenue for the second quarter was $30.1 million, a 64 percent increase over the same quarter in 2004. Analyst Jennifer Chao, of New York-based Deutsche Bank Securities, revised Remodulin projections for the year from $103 million to $115 million, and also increased the company's target price from $64 to $68. United Therapeutics reported net income for the quarter at $12.2 million, or 49 cents per diluted share, above the estimated analyst projections of 33 cents. The company ended the quarter with $161.8 million in cash and investments. Its shares (NASDAQ:UTHR) gained $14.22 Tuesday, up 26.3 percent to close at $68.27.