• Affitech A/S, of Oslo, Norway, signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the Research Foundation of the Norwegian Radium Hospital for two cancer-specific human antibodies discovered using the company's CBAS (Cell-Based Antibody Selection) technology. Affitech and NRH collaborated on the development of CBAS technology, which enables the simultaneous discovery of antibodies and their cognate targets. Affitech said CBAS has generated a pipeline of cancer-specific antibodies, and the first two have begun preclinical development. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Bionaut Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., announced a research collaboration with the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute to profile Bionaut cancer compounds that inhibit the ability of tumor cells to survive various stress conditions. NCI and Bionaut also will collaborate to identify new biomarkers in tumor cells that are affected by those cancer compounds. NCI will test the compounds against a panel of tumor cell lines, and also evaluate their therapeutic potential to alter metastasis.

• Callisto Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New York, will include in the next trial of Annamycin in adult relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients an initial evaluation of a small number of patients to reconfirm the initial safety data in a Phase I/IIa trial. The company will use doses below the maximum tolerated dose to determine a fixed dose. The study then will be rolled into a larger Phase IIb trial.

• CancerVax Corp., of Carlsbad, Calif., said data from a randomized Phase II trial of patients with melanoma who were treated with Canvaxin-specific active immunotherapy following surgical resection demonstrated antibody responses to several tumor antigens. The data were presented earlier this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

• Carrington Laboratories Inc., of Irving, Texas, said its wholly owned subsidiary, DelSite Biotechnologies, reported results from a Phase I trial demonstrating that GelVac powder intranasal delivery system for vaccines was safe and well tolerated, and that doses were consistently and reproducibly delivered to the nasal cavity. The study involved 15 healthy subjects and was designed as a three-way cross-over trial using two selected particle sizes of GelVac powder and a control powder. Researchers evaluated safety, as well as nasal deposition, nasal retention time and a single-dose delivery device.

• Celsion Corp., of Columbia, Md., appointed Lawrence Olanoff president and CEO, effective July 29. Olanoff has been executive vice president of New York-based Forest Laboratories Inc. since 1998, and previously headed the Forest Research Institute. He also has been appointed as a member of Celsion's board. Celsion's current president and CEO, Augustine Cheung, will continue serving as the company's chief scientific officer and board member.

• DNAPrint genomics Inc., of Sarasota, Fla., said that it will begin a study of the company's Ovanome predictive assay using ovarian cancer patient samples to be procured by the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center-affiliated Bay Area Oncology in Tampa, Fla. Central to the study, which will begin immediately, are DNA samples that will be taken from patients receiving treatment with first-regimen taxol-carboplatin chemotherapy.

• Elixir Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., secured an exclusive license to intellectual property from the regents of the University of California relating to work with SirT1, a member of the sirtuin class of enzymes, and the HIV TAT (Transcriptional Transactivation) protein. The sirtuins are related to Sir2, a gene identified in yeast that is conserved across species and implicated in the control of lifespan, metabolism, resistance to stress and other cellular regulatory pathways.

• GenoLogics Life Sciences Software Inc., of Victoria, British Columbia, established a partnership with the Institute for Systems Biology to collaborate on increasing the use of ISB's open source software tools within the life sciences community.

• Lion bioscience AG, of Heidelberg, Germany, filed with the SEC to terminate the registration of its ordinary shares, eliminating its obligation to file certain reports. In December, the company voluntarily delisted its American depository shares from the Nasdaq National Market and terminated its American depository receipt facility. The company expects to realize significant cost savings as a result, and will continue to provide financial information as required by the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

• Meditech Research Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, said results of two Phase I trials, published in the latest edition of Chemotherapy, showed that patients treated with intravenous hyaluronic acid in combination therapy suffered no unexpected adverse reactions. The studies evaluated two drugs developed by Meditech based on its HyACT (Hyaluronic Acid Chemotransport Technology) platform, HyDOX (doxorubicin and hyaluronic acid) and HyFIVE (5-fluorouracil and hyaluronic acid). Meditech said antitumor responses also were noted in several patients, though efficacy was not the primary objective.

• MultiCell Technologies Inc., of Lincoln, R.I., said its board approved a 1-for-5 reverse split of its common stock, effective May 18. As a result of the reverse stock split, every five shares of MultiCell stock will be combined into one share of common stock, and the company's shares outstanding will be reduced from 158 million to 31.6 million.

• Ortec International Inc., of New York, initiated a collaboration with Song Li, of the Center for Tissue Engineering of the University of California at Berkeley, to evaluate the potential of Ortec's collagen scaffold for application to cardiovascular tissue regeneration. The initial research will focus on the in vitro growth and differentiation of blood vessel cells, heart precursor cells and adult stem cells in Ortec's collagen scaffold.

• Pro-Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newton, Mass., dosed a colorectal cancer patient in a Phase II trial of Davanat/5-FU at Hematology-Oncology Associates of Treasure Coast in Port St. Lucie, Fla. The Phase II trial is in metastatic colorectal cancer patients who have disease progression after receiving standard chemotherapeutic regimens. The trial will enroll up to 38 patients at seven medical centers.

• ProtoKinetix Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said that the University of Rouen in France reported that its laboratory completed an enzymatic study on the dimeric compound of synthetic AFGP, which resulted in zero degradation. The confirmation of the stability of the dimeric class of AFGP illustrates that the newly engineered molecule has maintained the same stable characteristic as the monomeric predecessor, the company said.

• RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Bethesda, Md., said data showing how Thymosin beta 4 accelerates wound healing and stimulates hair follicles in laboratory animals were presented at the National Institutes of Health's Dental and Craniofacial Research Institute in Bethesda, Md. Data confirmed TB4's ability to up-regulate two genes, zyxin and laminin-5, both of which are important for cellular adhesion and cell migration.

• Santaris Pharma A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, is initiating an international Phase I/II study of SPC2996 in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. SPC2996 is the first of a class of LNA-based cancer drugs known as RNA antagonists, and it is designed to reduce the level of Bcl-2 protein within tumor cells by binding and inactivating Bcl-2 messenger RNA to induce apoptosis. The trial will evaluate safety and efficacy in patients who have failed, or no longer respond to, chemotherapy.

• Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Waltham, Mass., completed an agreement with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to exclusively license work from Jeffrey Milbrandt and his research group. The intellectual property includes work described in Science in which the researchers demonstrated a direct link between sirtuins and neuroprotection. Milbrandt joined Sirtris' scientific advisory board.

• Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., said follow-up results of a Phase II study of TH-070 (lonidamine) to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia showed that symptoms, maximum urine flow, post void urine volume and PSA remained significantly improved compared to baseline six months after cessation of treatment. The trial met its primary endpoint, a mean reduction in prostate volume at day 28 compared to baseline (-11.2 percent, p<0.001). Threshold intends to initiate a Phase II multicenter study in the U.S. and a Phase III in Europe in mid-2005.

• Tranzyme Pharma, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., presented positive data highlighting the effectiveness of its TZP-101 in promoting gastrointestinal motility in animal models of post-operative ileus. The data were presented at Digestive Disease Week 2005 in Chicago. TZP-101 is a small-molecule ghrelin agonist being developed by Tranzyme as a first-in-class treatment for both POI and diabetic gastroparesis.

• Viragen Inc., of Plantation, Fla., elected not to exercise an exclusive option to license VG104, the IEP 11 peptide, from the University of Miami. The IEP 11 peptide was being researched as a potential cancer therapeutic. In light of Viragen's decision, the option has expired and all development activities relating to VG104 were discontinued.

• YM BioSciences Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, said updated results for a completed Phase III metastatic breast cancer trial using its lead drug, tesmilifene, showed an overall improvement in survival of 143 percent if patients receiving a combination of doxorubicin and tesmilifene (29.7 months) compared to patients on doxorubicin alone (12.2 months). The results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando, Fla.

• Ziopharm Inc., of Charlestown, Mass., dosed the first patient in its Phase I study of ZIO-101, its small-molecule organic arsenic. The study is enrolling up to 40 patients with diverse blood and bone marrow cancers. Ziopharm licensed ZIO-101 from related compounds nine months ago from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.