• Ablynx NV, of Ghent, Belgium, signed a collaborative agreement with the National Research Council of Canada Institute for Biological Sciences in Ottawa, Ontario. The collaboration is expected to make a contribution to Ablynx's discovery efforts in the area of neurodegenerative diseases. NRC researchers have identified a class of nanobodies that cross the blood-brain barrier in a selective manner.

• Alizyme plc, of Cambridge, UK, completed the dose-escalation safety stage of its Phase IIa trial of ATL-104 in mucositis. A total of 27 patients were treated and no safety issues were raised by the independent review panel. Stage two now is recruiting a further 33 patients.

• Amarin Corp. plc, of London, completed its registered direct offering of 13.7 million American depository shares for gross proceeds of $17.8 million and net proceeds totaling about $14.7 million. The company said the offering included the redemption of $2 million in loan notes. Proceeds will be used to support Phase III trials of Miraxion in Huntington's disease, expected to begin around mid-year. The drug also is in Phase II development for treatment-unresponsive depression. Leerink Swann & Co. served as placement agent.

• Angel Biotechnology Ltd., of Cramlington, UK, said its development program was awarded two grants totaling £275,000 (US$502,595) for research and development during 2004-2005. One grant is for the company's Rapid Recombination technology and is designed to broaden its strain development services, while the other grant is going toward Angel's antiviral antibody program. Angel specializes in microbial strain development and cGMP manufacture of recombinant proteins and antibodies in microbial and mammalian expression systems.

• Bionomics Ltd., of Adelaide, Australia, agreed to acquire the Melbourne, Australia-based drug discovery company Iliad Chemicals Pty. Ltd. for $9 million in Bionomics shares, with a potential $3 million milestone payment in Bionomics shares if an Iliad development product achieves an agreed upon clinical or commercial milestone. Bionomics said the acquisition will add to its pipeline an advanced series of preclinical drug candidates aimed at targeting blood vessels involved in tumors, which are expected to move into the clinic in 2007. Iliad founder and shareholder Bernard Flynn will join Bionomics when the acquisition is complete. Bionomics also has completed a placement, raising A$6 million (US$4.6 million) to fund development programs in cancer and central nervous system disorders.

• Cellegy Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Brisbane, Calif., said Cellegesic (nitroglycerin ointment) was launched in the UK by ProStrakan Group plc, of Galashiels, UK. Branded Rectogesic outside the U.S., the product is a 0.4 percent topical ointment for the treatment of pain associated with chronic anal fissure. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved the product for sale in the UK in August, and Cellegy said it will work with ProStrakan in filing submissions for marketing approval for the rest of the European Union.

• Crucell NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, and its contract manufacturer, DSM Biologics, of Groningen, the Netherlands, signed a PER.C6 commercial license agreement with Ferring Pharmaceuticals A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark. The agreement allows Ferring to use the PER.C6 cell line in the field of women's health care. Financial details were not disclosed. Also, Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery Inc., of Princeton, N.J., said a further milestone has been reached in its collaboration with NV Organon, resulting in a cash payment from Pharmacopeia. Organon has initiated regulatory GLP toxicological studies with the development candidate announced in November. The companies have worked together since 2002 to identify and optimize drug candidates.

• Cytheris, of Paris, signed a worldwide license agreement with three U.S. institutions, New York University, the City University of New York and the Aaron Diamond AIDs Research Center, for a new immuno-modulating agent. The agreement gives the French company exclusive development and marketing rights to a family of molecules made of ligands that activate NKT and dendritic cells. Cytheris, which was founded in 1999, is conducting four Phase I/II studies of its lead compound, a recombinant interleukin-7 growth factor designed to rebuild the immune system and enhance both global and specific immune response.

• Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, watched its shares climb 11.7 percent May 26, following the company's annual meeting in which CEO Kelly Martin said Tysabri eventually will be put back on the market. The multiple sclerosis drug was pulled from the market in February after it was linked to patient deaths stemming from progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.

• Evogene Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, and BonTom - Breeding & Research Group, of the faculty of agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, formed a research collaboration to jointly develop tomato varieties with improved taste and high-impact aroma. Evogene is focused on developing commercial products based on plant genomics.

• Exiqon A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said a paper published in Science described the temporal and spatial expression patterns of 115 conserved vertebrate microRNAs in zebrafish embryos by in situ hybridizations, using Exiqon's mercury detection probes. MicroRNAs are a recently discovered class of small RNA molecules that have demonstrated regulatory effects on gene expression.

• Helsinn Birex Therapeutics Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, has received the first delivery of Aloxi (palonosetron hydrochloride) and has begun sales and marketing of the product, which was approved in Europe for the prevention of acute nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. Aloxi is a second-generation compound of serotonin subtype 3 receptor antagonists with a higher receptor-binding affinity and plasma half-life compared to first-generation 5HT3 receptor antagonists. The product is sold in the U.S. by Helsinn's partner, MGI Pharma Inc., of Minneapolis.

• Hybrigenics SA, of Paris, obtained international quality-control recognition for its proteomics service, having been granted ISO 9001-2000 certification in Europe, QMI (Quality Management Institute) certification in the U.S. and JQA (Japan Quality Insurance) in Japan. The company is specialized in exploring new protein-protein interaction pathways.

• Immuno-Designed Molecules SA, of Paris, has been granted a European patent covering the basic technology underlying its therapeutic cancer vaccines, which are designed to prevent tumor relapse. The vaccines are derived from the patient's white blood cells, which are exposed to IL-13 and GM-CSF, biological compounds that help transform them into dendritic cells. The patent covers the preparation process and the dendritic cells obtained after differentiation of the monocytes from the blood.

• IntegraGen SA, of Paris, said it will be using DNA samples collected by the newly formed Fondation Autisme in France to validate its genetic test for autism, expected to become available in 2006. The company is supporting the Fondation with a donation and assistance in creating a databank and repository of DNA samples collected from families with an autistic child. To help create the sample databank, the Fondation Autisme also has formed a partnership with U.S.-based Cure Autism Now and French-based genetic research institute Genethon.

• Kiadis BV, of Groningen, the Netherlands, and NV Organon, of Oss, the Netherlands, entered an evaluation agreement centered on the use of Kiadis' core on-line screening technology, BioSelect, for Organon's reproductive medicine discovery program. Terms of the collaboration call for Organon to supply Kiadis with a target, though financial terms were not disclosed. Kiadis will be responsible for delivering active compounds against the target using its technology.

• Paradigm Therapeutics Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, appointed Alastair Riddell CEO. For the past seven years Riddell was CEO of Pharmagene plc, leaving earlier this year after the company reported lower turnover and the lead product failed in Phase IIa trials. Paradigm was formed in 1999 to use transgenic mice to uncover the physiological function of human genes.

• ProStrakan Group plc, of Galashiels, UK, reduced its indicative value by a quarter, to between £160 million - £190 million, (US$291 million to US$346.3 million) in a bid to attract potential investors. The company announced plans to raise £50 million in an initial public offering on the main market in London two weeks ago, citing a potential valuation of £220 to £240 million, excluding the new money.

• Purely Proteins Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, said its board decided to accelerate the company's internal program to discover and develop purification processes for human serum therapeutics. Initial targets in the Purely Proteins program include the serum proteins immunoglobulin G and alpha-1-antitrypsin, in addition to specific human growth factors and infectious agents.

• SemBioSys Genetics Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, received the second and final license payment from its royalty-bearing license and sales agreement with Lonza Inc., of Basel, Switzerland. The agreement provides Lonza with the global rights to SemBioSys' DermaSphere Oleosome Technology for use in personal care markets. Lonza launched its first DermaSphere-based product under its Natrulon line of natural ingredients in 2004. SemBioSys expects to receive its first royalty payment in the last half of 2005, and the early revenues will be used to fund the development of the company's other products, including insulin and Apo AI, a product candidate aimed at the atherosclerosis market.

• SIRS-Lab GmbH, of Jena, Germany, is participating in the European research project GenOSept. The project investigating the "Genetics of Sepsis and Septic Shock" was initiated by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine. GenOSept links intensive care clinicians from European countries with 14 academic and medical institutions. SIRS-Lab GmbH is the only non-academic partner in the consortium.

• Structural Genomics Consortium, of Oxford, UK, an Anglo-Canadian charitable consortium of public and private agencies, delivered its first 50 human and malaria protein structures to the public domain two months ahead of schedule.

• Valentis Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., said it has granted to London-based Organon Laboratories Ltd. a nonexclusive, worldwide license for its GeneSwitch gene-regulation technology. Terms of the agreement call for Organon to pay an up-front license fee, with Valentis entitled to yearly license maintenance fees. GeneSwitch allows researchers to control the level and duration of selected genes in transgenic animals and cell cultures.