Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, and Wyeth, of Madison, N.J., said Elan's wholly owned subsidiary Neuralab Ltd. received three patents for the companies' joint research on immunotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. It was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,750,324 titled "Humanized and chimeric N-terminal amyloid-beta antibodies," No. 6,743,427 titled "Prevention and treatment of amyloidogenic disease," and No. 6,761,888 titled "Passive immunization treatment of Alzheimer's disease."

Genetronics Biomedical Corp., of San Diego, was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,763,264 titled "Method of Treatment Using Electroporation Mediated Delivery of Drugs and Genes."

Metabasis Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,752,981 B1 describing, in part, the use of HepDirect prodrugs for the liver-specific delivery of drugs containing certain functional groups for a variety of chronic liver diseases, as well as metabolic diseases in which the liver is responsible for the overproduction of certain biochemical end-products such as cholesterol, glucose and fatty acids.

MycoLogics Inc., of Denver, was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,716,625 for the discovery of compositions and methods related to fungal histidine kinases and their use in screening compounds for antifungal activity, in addition to the development of antifungal compounds.

Nanogen Inc., of San Diego, was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,753,148 titled "Methods and Apparatus for Detecting Variants Utilizing Base Stacking."

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tustin, Calif., was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,749,853 titled "Combined Methods and Compositions for Coagulation and Tumor Treatment," covering agents that occlude tumor blood vessels for therapeutic applications.

Phoenix Biosciences Inc., of Hollywood, Fla., received U.S. Patent No. 6,734,192 for its immunological method that claims to reduce HIV activity.