• A.P. Pharma Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., completed the sale of about 4.2 million shares of common stock at $3 per share to various institutional investors, raising $12.5 million gross. The offering was made as part of the company's shelf registration statement filed with the SEC. Olympus Securities LLC served as placement agent. The company estimates it will use net proceeds of $11.8 million for clinical trials, research and development expenses and general and administrative expenses. The company focuses on developing and commercializing its bioerodible injectable and implantable systems under the trade name Biochronomer.

• Advanced Magnetics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., submitted a response to the approvable letter received from the FDA for Combidex, a molecular imaging agent for the diagnosis of metastatic lymph nodes. The company received the approvable letter in June 2000. The FDA asked for a few additional details, which Advanced Magnetics is gathering in order to support a complete response to the approvable letter. Cytogen Corp., of Princeton, N.J., has exclusive U.S. marketing rights to Combidex.

• Crucell NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, said its MAbstract technology helped in the discovery of an antibody for protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome virus infection. The next issue of The Lancet will feature study results of the antibody that was discovered with the technology and produced on the PER.C6 cell lines, showing it protects ferrets from SARS. Crucell stopped its oncology program in 2003 and redirected its focus to infectious diseases.

• Genaera Corp., of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., joined the Russell 3000 Index when the broad-market index was reconstituted Friday, according to a preliminary list of additions issued by Russell Investment Group. Genaera develops drugs for serious diseases from genomics and natural products.

• GPC Biotech AG, of Martinsried, Germany, set the subscription price for the up to about 7.1 million new shares offered in the rights offering at €12.50. The rights offering to existing shareholders was published June 14, and the subscription period will end today. GPC Biotech is focused on discovering and developing cancer drugs.

• Imcor Pharmaceutical Co., of San Diego, said its stock would be delisted from the Nasdaq SmallCap Market because the specialty pharmaceutical company had not held an annual meeting for its last two fiscal years. Imcor, which is developing imaging products such as Imagent, said it would hold the meetings next month. It is appealing the delisting.

• Incara Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said that its board authorized and its majority shareholder approved a 1-for-10 reverse split of its common stock, as part of a program of planned internal changes designed to streamline the company. The reverse split will have a record date of July 6, and the common stock will begin trading on a split-adjusted basis as of July 7. The effective date for the reverse split will be July 16.

• LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bozeman, Mont., was awarded funding from the Department of Defense to continue its development of drugs to combat norovirus infections. The $2.2 million award supports the next stage of clinical development and recognizes the continued success of LigoCyte's collaborative program with Michele Hardy, associate professor of molecular biology and virology at Montana State University. Noroviruses cause infectious acute gastroenteritis.

• Metabasis Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, said the Journal of the American Chemical Society published an article describing aspects of its HepDirect prodrug technology that Metabasis uses to direct drugs to the liver to treat metabolic and liver diseases. Nature also reported on the technology. Results show that HepDirect prodrugs are capable of undergoing cleavage by a liver-specific enzyme, resulting in delivery of high levels of the active form of a nucleoside to the liver.

• MGI Pharma Inc., of Minneapolis, and Helsinn Healthcare SA, of Lugano, Switzerland, said presentations at the 16th Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer international symposium in Miami described the impact of treatment with Aloxi injection. Data show that significantly more patients who were treated with Aloxi injection reported no impact on their daily living from nausea and vomiting, compared to patients treated with ondansetron or dolasetron. Aloxi also demonstrated that its efficacy is maintained in patients weighing more than 90 kg, and that the therapy is well tolerated with predictable plasma concentration. Aloxi injection is a selective 5-HT3 receptor antagonist that was approved in July 2003 by the FDA at a fixed dose of 0.25 mg for the prevention of acute nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy.

• NeoPharm Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., said it received a follow-up subpoena from the SEC as part of an ongoing investigation, requesting documents dealing with the conclusion of its arbitration case with Pfizer Inc., of New York, and the recent resignation of its president and CEO. The cancer drug development company, which said both events occurred since the issuance of the initial subpoena in March, added that it continues to cooperate with the SEC.

• Organon Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., of Roseland, N.J., received a not-approvable letter from the FDA for its new drug application for gepirone ER. The company, the human health care business unit of Akzo Nobel NV, of Arnhem, the Netherlands, said it plans to withdraw the application for gepirone as a treatment for major depressive disorder.

• Panagene Inc., of Daejeon, Korea, developed a peptide nucleic acid (PNA) chemistry, which leads to the manufacture of PNA monomers and to the efficient synthesis of PNA oligomers at higher purity, the company said. The PNA chemistry is designed to accelerate the development of diagnostic and therapeutic products derived from human genome project sequence data. PNA is a nucleic acid analogue in which the entire phosphate sugar backbone has been replaced by an uncharged polyamide backbone with the side groups, purine and pyrimidine bases, found in biological nucleic acids.

• Resverlogix Corp., of Calgary, Alberta, will receive C$180,000 (US$133,000) from the National Research Council of Canada as part of an Industrial Research Assistance Program contribution agreement. It will fund further development by the company on its APO A1 assay screening process, which it has used to identify its lead compounds. Resverlogix's lead program, Provas, is moving from the discovery phase into preclinical testing.

• Santarus Inc., of San Diego, filed a registration statement for a follow-on offering of 6 million shares of common stock, which would raise the company about $88.4 million based on Friday's closing stock (NASDAQ:SNTS) price of $14.73. It also plans to grant the underwriters an overallotment option for an additional 900,000 shares. SG Cowen & Co. LLC and UBS Investment Bank will act as joint book-running managers, and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and RBC Capital Markets will act as co-managers. Santarus conducted its initial public offering in April, raising $62.1 million, including the overallotment option. (See BioWorld Today, April 2, 2004.)