• AbGenomics Corp., of Taipei, Taiwan, granted Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, an exclusive license to develop, manufacture and commercialize products derived from the AbGenomics' monoclonal antibody, designated 168. AbGenomics said it could be developed to treat a range of immune-related diseases. Development first will focus on autoimmune diseases. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Affitech A/S, of Oslo, Norway, entered its first, nonexclusive research license agreement on the use of Protein L and related vectors with an unnamed British biotechnology company. Financial terms were not disclosed. Affitech gained rights to Protein L, a bacterial protein that binds antibodies without interfering with their antigen-binding activities, by acquiring Actigen from Lund, Sweden-based Active Biotech AB.

• Antisoma plc, of London, signed an agreement with Heraeus GmbH to manufacture AS1410. Antisoma plans to start clinical trials of the telomere-targeting agent during the first half of 2006.

• Argonaut Technologies Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., closed the sale of the assets of its chemistry consumables business and certain assets of its process chemistry business, which constitute substantially all of its assets except for its cash, to Biotage AB, of Uppsala, Sweden. As a result of the transaction, the company no longer has an operating business and plans to wind-up its assets and liabilities.

• Australian Cancer Technology Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, said the company's name has changed to Avantogen Ltd. by a vote of shareholders May 9. It also announced the closing of a A$5.7 million (US$4.3 million) 1:3 non-renounceable rights issue, the first of three stages of capital development to advance the company's clinical programs in cancer. The company will continue to be traded on the Australian Stock Exchange under the symbol "ACU."

• Biogen Idec Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, saw their stocks fall May 26 following reports of a possible fourth case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) linked to Tysabri, the multiple sclerosis product pulled off the market in February after the companies reported deaths linked to PML. A third PML case was reported in March.

• BioInvent International AB, of Lund, Sweden, entered a license agreement with Cambridge, UK-based Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc. Under the agreement, BioInvent and its partners receive rights to use CAT's antibody phage-display patent estate to develop products from BioInvent's n-CoDeR antibody libraries, and BioInvent also agreed to withdraw its opposition to CAT's patents filed at the European Patent Office in Munich. CAT will receive an initial license fee and future payments depending on the number of therapeutic antibodies resulting from the agreement. CAT is entitled to milestone payments and royalties on sales.

• Cellectis SA, of Romainville, France, and Celliance, a division of Atlanta-based Serologicals Co., entered a collaboration agreement for Celliance to evaluate Cellectis' Meganuclease Recombination System to develop a new generation of derivative cell lines for production. Financial terms and conditions were not disclosed.

• CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc, of Cambridge, UK, released new data on the oral bioavailability of its lead product, the morphine metabolite M6G, and its potential use in the treatment of chronic pain. The research, by Lona Christup of the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Services in Copenhagen, Denmark, was presented at the European Society for Anesthesiology meeting in Vienna, Austria, at the end of May. Conclusions were: The prolonged and constant absorption of M6G might represent a sustained-release system, its hydrophilic properties and slow rate of entry into the central nervous system might give M6G a low potential for abuse, the prolonged duration of analgesia makes M6G suited for the treatment of chronic pain, and M6G gives rise to less nausea/vomiting and respiratory depression than morphine. The product is in Phase III trials for the treatment of post-operative pain.

• Cerus Corp., of Concord, Calif., entered a definitive agreement with BioOne Corp., of Tokyo, for commercialization of the Intercept Blood System for plasma in parts of Asia. BioOne will market and distribute the Intercept Blood System for plasma in Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. Cerus has received an up-front payment of $3 million for signing the letter of intent. It also can receive up-front and milestone payments totaling about $33 million in cash and BioOne equity, as well as royalties.

• Crucell NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, started an evaluation program with Medarex Inc., of Princeton, N.J., to optimize the application of Crucell's STAR technology in bioreactor culture. The program will be performed with a fully human antibody developed using Medarex's UltiMAb technology. Further details were not disclosed.

• Evogene Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, received $1.75 million in new capital from its existing, as well as new, investors from Israel, France and North America. It also reported that Hagai Karchi, who co-founded Evogene in 2002 and has served as CEO since that time, was appointed chief scientific officer. Evogene is focused on developing commercial products based on plant genomics.

• Evotec OAI AG, of Hamburg, Germany, met the first milestone in its three-year research collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany. The companies are examining selected G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and the milestone was for identification of a number of lead series for a priority target among GPCRs. The size of the payment was not disclosed.

• Geneva Bioinformatics (GeneBio) SA, of Geneva, entered an agreement with Hitachi Software Engineering Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, to distribute GeneBio's Phenyx software platform within the Japanese market. The agreement allows GeneBio to further solidify its business relationship with Hitachi Software.

• Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said in laboratory experiments HuMax-CD20, among other things, appeared to induce more effective killing of targets expressing low levels of CD20 than rituximab. When low levels of CD20 are present on tumor targets, rituximab (Rituxan, Genentech Inc.) does not appear effective in killing the tumor cells. However, HuMax-CD20 is effective when CD20 is expressed at both high and very low levels.

• GPC Biotech AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said that the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Agency has recommended the granting of orphan medicinal product designation for the anticancer monoclonal antibody 1D09C3 for the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

• Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG, of Munich, Germany, appointed Michael Grau chief financial officer. Grau comes to Ingenium from MorphoSys AG, also of Munich, where he had been senior director for finance and accounting.

• Inpharmatica Ltd., of London, said Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. licensed its Admensa interactive ADME modeling software, and made a milestone payment following the identification of a drug target using Inpharmatica's Chematica drug discovery services and virtual screening technology.

• KeyNeurotek AG, of Magdeburg, Germany, appointed Rainer Schlichthaar chief medical officer. Schlichthaar has more than 10 years of experience with drug development and regulatory affairs, including work at Mario Merrel Dow and Arzneimittelwerk Dresden/Asta Medica. The company also created a scientific advisory board that includes personnel from public research institutes, academic institutions and industry. KeyNeurotek specializes in treatments for degenerative diseases of the central nervous system.

• Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, established a Level I American depository receipt program in the U.S., and its registration statement was declared effective May 31. The company is developing product candidates to target obesity, neuropathic pain and Type II diabetes.

• Micromet AG, of Munich, Germany, added Carsten Reinhardt as senior vice president for clinical development. He joins Micromet from F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., where he had been the international medical leader for Roche's Herceptin program. Micromet specializes in novel concepts in immunotherapy.

• MNL Pharma Ltd., of Reading, UK, released preclinical data showing its orally administered small-molecule MNLP 462a reduced tumor load by 70 percent compared to controls in a mouse model of melanoma.

• MRC Geneservice, of Cambridge, UK, agreed to a management buyout from the UK Medical Research Council, a publicly funded body. A new company, Geneservice Ltd., will be incorporated Aug. 1. It will offer genomics reagents and sequencing, genotyping, microarray-expression analysis and whole-genome amplification services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Auckland, New Zealand, said the clinical trial program for its lead drug, Glypromate, to prevent the loss of brain function following coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, has been shortened following a pre-investigational new drug meeting with the FDA. The company will proceed directly to a major efficacy study after completing a small Phase IIa trial by the end of the year and other standard prerequisites for Phase III. Neuren will avoid the cost of a previously planned Phase IIb study, and the Phase III can begin in 2006 rather than 2008, it said.

• NicOx SA, of Sophia-Antipolis, France, appointed Staffan Strömberg vice president of drug development. He will be in charge of nonclinical development and project management for all the company's programs, overseeing chemistry and formulation, manufacturing, toxicology, pharmacokinetics and metabolism, and quality assurance. Strömberg previously was director of neuroscience portfolio optimization at AstraZeneca plc, of London. NicOx also appointed Stefan Holmström director of project management and Philippe Deram quality assurance manager.

• Novagali Pharma, of Evry, France, initiated a Phase I trial to test its oral formulation of paclitaxel in advanced cancers. The self-micro-emulsifying formulation is designed to ensure the same efficacy and safety as intravenously injected paclitaxel, while reducing patient discomfort and the need to stay in a hospital. Results are expected before the end of the summer.

• ObeTherapy Biotechnology, of Evry, France, and Zambon Group SpA, of Milan, Italy, completed the first phase of the collaboration they entered in October 2004 for the discovery and development of low-molecular-weight compounds to treat metabolic disorders such as lipidemia, metabolic syndrome and obesity. Zambon is financing the preclinical development work (with ObeTherapy receiving milestones), while clinical development costs are to be shared equally.

• Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, in collaboration with Plantation, Fla.-based Viragen Inc. and the Roslin Institute, produced a potentially therapeutic protein selectively in the whites of eggs laid by a transgenic hen. As a result, Viragen's stock rose 33.9 percent, or 19 cents June 3, to close at 75 cents. The technology is expected to offer a low-cost manufacturing alternative for the production of many protein drugs. The protein was successfully expressed using Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector gene delivery system in Viragen's avian system, and is a novel structure of a Viragen antibody designed to treat malignant melanoma. Separately, Oxford BioMedica presented encouraging Innurex preclinical efficacy data at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy in St. Louis. The data show that Innurex is able to induce nerve repair in spinal cord injuries and restore both sensory and motor functions in a placebo-controlled preclinical model. Separately, Oxford BioMedica signed a license agreement for its LentiVector technology with New York-based Pfizer Inc. Oxford BioMedica will receive an up-front license payment and an annual maintenance fee. The technology is used for gene target validation in the drug discovery process, as well as for direct therapeutic applications in neurotherapy.

• Pharmexa A/S, of Hørsholm, Denmark, raised DKK295.2 million (US$48.6 million) in a rights issue on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, which comprised 16.4 million new shares priced at DKK18 per share. The company now has 32.8 million shares outstanding.

• Phylogica Ltd., of West Perth, Australia, said it discovered compounds that protect brain cells under simulated stroke conditions. It said it found a number of its proprietary phylomers were able to rescue the cells from death. Phylomers are small fragments of protein.

• PONTIS Venture Partners Management GmbH began operations in Vienna, Austria. The company's first fund of €30 million (US$36.8 million) will specialize in high-tech investments, including biotechnology, in Austria and Central Europe. The company will participate in early round fundings, and its maximum investment will be €3 million.

• Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, entered a license agreement to advance the development of a series of promising preclinical compounds developed by Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo. Astellas was formed through a merger earlier this year between Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. Portola has identified the anti-thrombotic properties of Astellas compounds, which inhibit platelet adhesion to arterial walls.

• TopoTarget A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, disclosed its indicative price range in advance of its initial public offering on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. The company is seeking DKK205 million (US$33.8 million) to DKK255 million by offering 10 million shares, priced at DKK20.50 to DKK25.50. At the upper end of that range, the company would be valued at about DKK1 billion.