• Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., and bioMérieux, of Marcy l'Etoile, France, signed a new agreement granting the French company comprehensive, long-term access to the GeneChip technology of Affymetrix for the development and marketing of in vitro diagnostic tests for breast cancer, plus an option for extending the agreement to other cancers. The deal gives bioMérieux nonexclusive rights to DNA chips patented by Affymetrix, and to Affymetrix's instrumentation systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Alchemia Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia, was notified of its successful application for a grant worth up to A$7.8 million (US$6.3 million) under the government's Pharmaceutical Partnerships Program. The grant entitles Alchemia to funding over three years starting July 1 to support a number of its drug development projects, dependent on it meeting forecast R&D expenditure for the period.

• Antisoma plc, of London, said it will list its shares on Nasdaq. The London-listed company will set up a Level 1 American depository receipt program to enable its shares to be traded in dollars prior to the listing. There are no plans at present to use the listing to raise money.

• BioTie Therapies Oyj, of Turku, Finland, and Sanofi-Aventis Group, of Paris, extended their year-long research and option agreement, originally signed by Aventis SA, of Strasbourg, France, to evaluate the Finnish company's bioheparin project. Under the terms of the original agreement, Aventis' option to negotiate an exclusive license to BioTie's orally available version of the anticoagulant would have expired March 31. Terms were not disclosed.

• Chroma Therapeutics Ltd., of Oxford, UK, and Discovery Partners International Inc., of San Diego, entered a collaboration focused on the discovery of lead compounds against several selected targets. Under the terms of the agreement, Chroma will provide targets, and DPI will use its compound collection, discovery processes and data-management tools to identify the compounds. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Crucell NV, of Leiden, Netherlands, signed a PER.C6 research license agreement with Tel Aviv, Israel-based Vascular Biogenics Ltd., which will use the PER.C6 cell line for the preparation and evaluation of gene therapeutics based on adenoviral vectors. Under terms of the agreement, Vascular Biogenics will make a research license payment and annual maintenance fees. Further financial details were not disclosed. Also, Crucell said its partner, Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines business of the Sanofi-Aventis Group, of Paris, was awarded a $97 million contract by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to accelerate the licensure in the U.S. of a PER.C6-based cell-culture influenza vaccine and vaccine manufacturing facility. Crucell will be a subcontractor for the program. Terms of the agreement between Crucell and Sanofi Pasteur were not disclosed. The project is part of the U.S. government's effort to increase influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity in the event of a pandemic or other influenza health emergency. Separately, Crucell said the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets has notified Crucell that its investigation into the exercise of options and the subsequent sale of shares on Jan. 18 by certain members of Crucell's management and supervisory boards was completed. The investigation indicated that insider trading did not occur.

• Cytos Biotechnology AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, and Medarex Inc., of Princeton, N.J., expanded the scope of their agreement for new drug targets. Medarex will acquire the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize monoclonal antibody therapeutics against the collaboration targets. Medarex also will receive a first right of negotiation for use of those targets in small-molecule drug discovery and as protein therapeutics. Cytos will receive an up-front payment and has the opportunity to earn license fees, milestones and royalties on net sales of products that are brought to market.

• ExonHit Therapeutics SA, of Paris, added a nuclear receptor and co-regulator array to its SpliceArray Service business unit. The service provides ExonHit's splice variant content, probe design and customized analysis with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Agilent Technologies Inc.'s microarray platform.

• Gamida-Cell Ltd., of Jerusalem, was awarded orphan drug designation to the company's flagship product, StemEx, for hematopoietic support in patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies who are receiving high dose therapy.

• Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, completed enrollment in the HuMax-CD20 Phase I/II study to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. A total of 33 patients are enrolled in the study, with 27 patients included in the highest dose group.

• Helsinn Healthcare SA, of Lugano, Switzerland, said the European Commission granted marketing authorization for Aloxi to prevent acute nausea and vomiting associated with moderately and highly emetogenic cancer chemotherapy. Aloxi belongs to the second generation of serotonin subtype 3 receptor antagonists and has shown efficacy during the acute and delayed phases after chemotherapy treatment. Helsinn's partner, MGI Pharma Inc., of Minneapolis, received FDA approval for Aloxi in September 2003.

• InKine Pharmaceutical Co. Inc., of Blue Bell, Pa., earned a $1 million milestone payment from Zeria Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, its licensee in Japan for sodium phosphate tablets for use as a colonic purgative, bowel cleansing agent or laxative. The milestone was triggered by the submission of a new drug application to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for the licensed product. If the product is approved, InKine would receive an additional milestone payment.

• Ipsat Therapies, of Helsinki, Finland, closed a EUR7 million (US$9 million) private placement, bringing the total amount raised since inception to EUR19 million. The round was led by Bio Fund Management Oy, with Finnish Industry Investment Ltd., the Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co. and Sitra also investing. Ipsat said proceeds are expected to fund research and development activities involving its product portfolio, primarily its Phase IIb proof-of-concept trial for P1A, a recombinant enzyme for the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, antibiotic resistance and gut disturbance. The company also is pursing alliances with partners to expedite commercialization. Along with the financing, Ipsat added new board members Wolfgang Pieken, of MWG Biotech AG and founding partner of Ventac Partners; Aki Prihti, of Bio Fund; Ritta Jaaskelainen, of Finnish Industry Investment Ltd.; Pauli Marttila; and Kai Lindevall.

• IsoTis OrthoBiologics SA, of Lausanne, Switzerland, received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for its DynaGraft II product family for orthopedic applications. DynaGraft II is derived from demineralized bone matrix and delivered in a reverse phase medium for optimal graft containment. The company had orthobiology sales of more than $25 million in 2004.

• Mitra Medical AB, of Lund, Sweden, raised SEK30 million (US$4.2 million) from Inter Ikea and Industrifonden to fund a Phase II trial of its Tagged Antibody Therapy in patients with B-cell lymphoma. The technology is designed the reduced the toxicity of radio-labeled immunotherapy by removing excess radioantibodies from the circulation that do not bind their target antigen. The company also has a breast cancer project at the preclinical stage.

• NicOx SA, of Sophia-Antipolis, France, received a payment of EUR1 million from New York-based Pfizer Inc. in connection with their August 2004 agreement. The deal granted Pfizer an option to acquire an exclusive worldwide license to NicOx's preclinical nitric oxide-donating compounds. NicOx could receive a further EUR35 million in milestone payments if the agreement results in the successful development of a commercial product.

• Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, said it received notice of allowance on a U.S. patent covering genetic modification of lentiviruses that improve their safety and reliability as gene-delivery systems. The claims cover modifications that prevent the viruses from interfering with the cellular processes of target cells. To date, the company has agreed to four licenses for its LentiVector technology and is negotiating five more.

• Oxford Genome Sciences UK, of Oxford, UK, closed a second round of venture capital investment. The South East Growth Fund led the round, following an initial investment in July, and Oxford Capital partners joined as a new investor. The second tranche has allowed the company to move into a large proteomic facility near Oxford and will be used to accelerate the company's growth, primarily through partnerships, the company said.

• OxyPharma AB, of Stockholm, Sweden, selected a small-molecule candidate multiple sclerosis drug, Rob 895, from its autoimmune disease drug discovery program and that it now intends to commence a full-scale preclinical program before seeking regulatory permission for human trials. The molecule, based on OxyPharma's patented lead substance, B-220, is its second to enter preclinical development. Rob 803, in development for rheumatoid arthritis, is due to enter a Phase IIa trial in early 2006.

• Phytopharm plc, of Godmanchester, UK, said Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. confirmed it is terminating the licensing agreement for Cogane (PYM50028) for treating Alzheimer's disease, and has paid a pounds 4 million milestone (US$7.2 million). Yamanouchi, which has paid pounds 6.3 million net to Phytopharm over the course of their agreement, withdrew after a portfolio review following its merger with Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

• Proteome Sciences plc, of Cobham, UK, raised pounds 4.7 million (US$8.5 million) in a placing with an institutional investor. The company placed 8.1 million shares, representing 6.6 percent of the existing share capital, at 59.5 pence per share. Proteome said also that it signed an agreement for a $2.3 million license for its Tandem Mass Tags technology, which increases the output of proteomics experiments by reducing sample complexity.

• Proximagen Neurosciences plc, of London, raised pounds 12.6 million net (US$24.68 million) in its flotation on the Alternative Investment Market in London, giving it a market capitalization of pounds 29.7 million. The proceeds will be used to advance the development of the company's Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease products.

• pSivida Ltd., of Perth, Australia, said its UK manufacturing partner, Atomising Systems Ltd., reached a key milestone in the manufacture of BrachySil, its lead product, by completing construction of a dedicated cleanroom facility to GMP specifications at its Sheffield, UK, plant. The milestone will enable pSivida to increase BrachySil production in support of both larger clinical trials for advanced liver cancer and new Phase IIa trials in a second cancer indication planned for later this year, and for future commercialization.

• Serologicals Corp., of Atlanta, said its wholly owned subsidiary, Chemicon International Inc., and OctoMethylome Sciences SA, of Leige, Belgium, entered an agreement in which OMS licensed Chemicon's patented fluorescent detection technology, Amplifluor, for the development of diagnostic assays detecting DNA methylation patterns. The Amplifluor system can be used for a variety of nucleic acid-amplification techniques, and can be incorporated in drug discovery, with other applications in genomics, clinical diagnostics, forensics, biothreat and food testing. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Sigma-Aldrich Corp., of St. Louis, completed its acquisition of the Proligo Group from Degussa AG, of Dusseldorf, Germany. Terms of the proposed purchase were not disclosed. Proligo, a global supplier of key genomics research tools including custom DNA, custom RNA and phosphoramidite raw materials used for DNA and RNA synthesis, had 2004 sales of about $40 million. Nine months of Proligo's operating results will be added to Sigma-Aldrich's performance in 2005, increasing overall sales growth by about 2 percent.

• Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, launched Bilive, its combined hepatitis A and B vaccine during a meeting held March 25-27 in Huang Mountain, Anhui Province, China. The company expects to record the first sales of Bilive by May. Sinovac received final approval from the Chinese drug regulatory body in January for the marketing and sales of Bilive, a combined vaccine formulated by purified hepatitis A virus antigen and recombinant (yeast) hepatitis B surface that is absorbed into aluminum hydroxide.

• Vernalis plc, of Reading, UK, said it acquired rights to an oncology target, Pin1, from Pintex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., and will pay up to $6.5 million in milestone payments to the point of marketing approval, and give Pintex 1.5 million shares if a candidate reaches clinical trials. Pin1 is overexpressed by a number of tumors, and Vernalis will use its structure-based drug design technology to discovery hits for the target.

• XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, appointed Michael Weiss interim nonexecutive chairman. Weiss became a nonexecutive director of XTLbio in November and also is chairman and CEO of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, of New York. Weiss said XTLbio is seeking a U.S.-based chief executive.