• Active Biotech AB, of Lund, Sweden, signed an agreement with Strathmann Biotec AG, of Hamburg, Germany, involving process development and manufacturing of Active Biotech's cancer product TTS (Tumor-Targeted Superantigens) CD3, for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer. Strathmann will take an active part in the project and share a part of the financial risk, reducing Active Biotech's initial development costs for the project, it said. In return, Strathmann is entitled to a limited royalty on Active Biotech's income from future milestones and sales. The total potential royalty to be paid is €10 million.

• Affitech AS, of Oslo, Norway, raised NOK30 million (US$4.5 million) in a fourth financing round to fund discovery and development of human therapeutic antibodies and to continue the development of its antibody discovery and screening platforms. New investor Braganza A/S, plus existing shareholders Teknoinvest, Ferd Venture and Four Seasons Venture, participated in the transaction. Affitech also unveiled its new cell-based antibody selection system, an integrated reverse screening platform that identifies disease-related orphan targets and related antibodies.

• Anadis Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, said it is in a joint project with a U.S. institute to further develop and conduct clinical trials of its inhaled spray that offers protection against anthrax and plague. The company also is working with the Australian Defense Department on development.

• Ark Therapeutics Group plc, of London published data from a second Phase II study of Cerepro in malignant glioma that showed an 81 percent increase in mean survival time, from 39 to 71 weeks, compared to standard care. Magnetic resonance imaging showed tumor progression was slowed and Cerepro was well tolerated. The safety profile of the adenoviral vector used in Cerepro was confirmed. Cerepro induces healthy brain cells surrounding a tumor site to express the enzyme thymidine kinase. That converts a ganciclovir prodrug to a form that kills dividing tumor cells.

• Atugen AG, of Berlin, appointed Peter Buckel CEO. Buckel previously was CEO of Xantos Biomedicine AG, a company he co-founded. He also has worked at Roche Diagnostics, and for more than 20 years at Boerhinger Mannheim. In addition, Buckel is a professor of the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich's Institute of Microbiology and Genetics. He also serves on the advisory board of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry and Neurobiology in Munich.

• BASF Plant Science GmbH, of Ludwigshafen, Germany, licensed the enzyme database Brenda from BioBase GmbH, of Wolfenbuttel, Germany. The electronic encyclopedia contains data on 83,000 enzymes from 9,800 organisms and additional metabolic data.

• CellCentric Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, completed its first round of venture funding. The company was founded to commercialize the intellectual property and research of Azim Surani at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. His findings demonstrated that mature cells could be reprogrammed to cells that behave like stem cells. Avlar BioVentures Ltd. led the investment, which also included Providence Investment Co. Ltd.

• Compugen Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel, disclosed two potential therapeutic proteins that it recently added to its research pipeline. CGEN M-3, a soluble kinase receptor, has potential applications in various types of cancer. CGEN P-4, a peptide, has potential applications in obesity and eating disorders. The proteins are naturally occurring molecules and each is a splice variant of a previously known protein.

• Crucell NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, said a dose of its vaccine protected monkeys against the Ebola virus in recent studies. Crucell and the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Bethesda, Md., produced a vaccine against Ebola, using Crucell's PER.C6 cell line as a production platform, confirming the results of a previous NIAID/U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases trial of a prototype adenoviral vaccine reported in Nature in August. Crucell has a Cooperate Research and Development Agreement with the VRC to develop PER.C6 and adenovirus vector-based vaccines against Ebola, Marburg and Lass viruses, as well as a contract to produce such vaccines for clinical studies in humans. Also, Crucell received Israeli regulatory approval to market a West Nile virus veterinary vaccine for geese. Developed with the Israeli Kimron Veterinary Institute, the vaccine is based on Crucell's PER.C6 human cell line technology. The approval follows a safety trial involving 1,875 geese, with no vaccine-related adverse reactions, as well as various efficacy trials.

• Eiffel Technologies Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, established a Level 1 American depository receipt program. Its ADR code is "EFFTY." The company uses its Supercritical Fluid technology to re-engineer existing drugs such as insulin and products for asthma to improve their effectiveness.

• Epigenomics AG, of Berlin, reported positive results from clinical studies showing that its proprietary DNA methylation markers can identify the likelihood of disease recurrence in women following breast cancer surgery. Presenting at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans, the company said that approximately half of the women in the largest group of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients could be considered low risk for recurrence. The study suggested Epigenomics' marker could reduce overtreatment. The company is studying the markers' performance in a group of 1,300 patients, as part of a partnership with Roche Diagnostics.

• Galapagos Genomics NV, of Mechelen, Belgium, identified, validated and filed patent applications on several drug targets in Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. Galapagos recently initiated small-molecule drug development programs based on the targets.

• Gamida-Cell Ltd., of Jerusalem, said preclinical studies show that an injection of an expanded population of cord blood-derived AC133 cells directly into the pancreas reversed diabetes in mice. The data demonstrated that the expanded population of stem cells helped to restore normal blood glucose levels, as well as the ability to maintain a stable blood sugar level. The expression of the human C-peptide, the marker for the production of insulin, also appeared. Also, Gamida said an article was published in the June issue of Experimental Hematology. The article describes the research that laid the foundation for Gamida-Cell's preclinical stem cell expansion studies and the company's investigational new drug Phase I/II study of StemEx for the treatment of leukemia, now in progress in the U.S. StemEx is a unit of an expanded population of stem cells. Gamida-Cell also will begin a Phase I/II cardiac trial in 2004 or early 2005.

• Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, signed an agreement with DSM Biologics to produce a commercial supply of HuMax-CD4, its antibody to treat T-cell lymphoma. DSM will manufacture cGMP batches of HuMax-CD4 for clinical trials and commercial supply. It will be produced in DSM's facility in Groningen, the Netherlands.

• Hybrigenics SA, of Paris, enhanced its protein interaction mapping services by integrating the Montage PCRmu384 and SEQ384 kits of Millipore Corp., of Billerica, Mass., in its automated process for analyzing complex cellular pathways. Hybrigenics said the kits are an improvement over magnetic beads because they optimize and simplify the automation of its high-throughput protein interaction technology platform, which has the capacity to perform up to 2,500 yeast two-hybrid screens per year and generates protein interaction maps through the use of industrialization and semi-automated protocols.

• Kudos Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, announced positive data from a Phase I dose-escalation study of AQ4N, a prodrug that is converted to an active cytotoxic when it reaches hypoxic (oxygen-starved) tumor cells, in patients with advanced cancer of the esophagus. The results from 13 of an expected 22 patients show AQ4N was well tolerated with a favorable pharmacokinetic profile. Hypoxic cells are relatively resistant to standard treatment with radio- and chemotherapy. Kudos has exclusive rights to the drug and has licensed North American rights to Novacea Inc., of San Francisco. The data was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting held this week in New Orleans.

• Medivir AB, of Huddinge, Sweden, said it realized gross proceeds of SEK322.5 million (US$43.5 million) from a discounted rights issue. Subscribers took up 4,263,695 newly issued shares, boosting its total number of shares outstanding to 12,899,047.

• Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, completed enrollment in its Phase IIb trial of AOD9604 for obesity. More than one-third of patients have finished treatment in the 300-patient study, with all treatment expected to end in September, followed by results in late November. Its primary efficacy endpoints are to determine the effect of AOD9604 on body-weight reduction, and fat reduction measured from a CT scan. Secondary endpoints are other measures of obesity, such as waist circumference and the effect of AOD9604 on perceived quality of life.

• Neuro3d, of Mulhouse, France, said ND1251 is being investigated in Phase I trials to treat depression. The product is an orally active phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor. The goal of the trials is to establish safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics, and to demonstrate activity in the brain.

• New Zealand and the Australian states formally agreed to drop any rivalry in bidding for overseas investment in biotechnology. Instead, in a pact to be announced at the BIO 2004 conference in San Francisco, New Zealand and the combined state governments, except Queensland, have agreed to jointly promote themselves to overseas investors. The government of the northern state of Queensland previously declared it did not see the need to be part of the pact.

• Oxford Biomedica plc, of Oxford, UK, agreed to acquire gene therapy patents from Chiron Corp., of Emeryville, Calif. At the same time Chiron made an equity investment in Oxford Biomedica, buying 316,0126 shares at 17.23 pence per share. The IP includes the use of human cell lines for the production of gene therapy products, gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy and the use of envelope proteins of the vesicular stomatis virus for increasing the ability of gene therapy vectors to transduce human cell types. Other financial terms were not disclosed. Separately, Oxford BioMedica said preclinical data from its Innurex nerve repair program were reported at the American Society of Gene Therapy meeting in Minneapolis. The findings, which the company plans to submit for publication, show that Innurex is able to restore function to damaged limbs in a model of stretch injury.

• Prana Biotechnology Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, said that shareholders approved the issuing of securities worth $20 million to institutional and professional investors, led by New York-based global health care fund managers, OrbiMed and XMark Funds. The transaction originally was announced April 28. Investors also purchased five-year warrants to buy an additional 3 million American depository receipts at an exercise price of $8 each. If exercised, that would raise an additional $24 million.

• Pro2Kem Ltd., of Dundee, UK, is opening an office in Chelmsford, Mass., in an effort to expand its marketing base in bioanalysis tools. Its first offering, the AggreKem Protein Aggregation Monitor, was launched last year.

• Sanofi-Synthelabo SA, of Paris, said French regulatory authorities set June 30 as the expiration date of its revised offer for Aventis SA, of Strasbourg, France. The company's French, German and U.S. offers will expire simultaneously on that date.

• Serono SA, of Geneva, initiated a Phase III trial of Serostim (somatropin [rDNA origin] for injection) as a potential treatment and maintenance therapy to reduce excess visceral fat accumulation in patients with HIV-associated adipose redistribution syndrome. The trial will be carried out on some 300 patients at 30 sites. Serostim is the only growth hormone approved by the FDA for the treatment of HIV-associated wasting or cachexia.

• SkyePharma plc, of London, entered an alliance with Vectura Ltd., of Chippenham, UK, in the area of pulmonary delivery technologies. SkyePharma will acquire rights to use Vectura's Aspirair dry-powder inhaler device for certain macromolecules on a nonexclusive basis. Although detailed commercial terms were not released, SkyePharma has made a £2 million (US$3.7 million) equity investment in Vectura as part of the alliance.

• Solbec Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Perth, Australia, said its lead compound, SBP002, destroys existing tumors and boosts immunity against mesothelioma. The drug is derived from a native weed called Devil's Apple. Studies conducted by the University of Western Australia confirmed its ability to positively activate the immune system, effectively destroying the tumors in animals, without destroying lymphocytes.

• Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, acquired an exclusive license to develop and market licofelone in Japan to treat osteoarthritis. The company will begin clinical trials in Japan to confirm the efficacy and safety of licofelone, which is in late-stage clinical development by Merckle GmbH, of Ulm, Germany, and its EuroAlliance development partners, Alfa Wassermann SpA and Lacer SA. Clinical studies have shown that licofelone therapy is linked with lower incidences of gastrointestinal and other side effects than conventional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

• Tripep AB, of Stockholm, Sweden, obtained approval to commence the first human dosing studies of its HIV drug candidate alphaHGA. The company has engaged the services of a contract research organization in the UK to conduct microdosing studies of alphaHGA in healthy volunteers. It plans to commence trials in HIV-infected subjects later this year.

• Xcellsyz Ltd., of Newcastle, England, formed a nonexclusive deal to license its human skeletal muscle-cell lines to Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, for evaluation and drug discovery research. The cell lines are produced using a technology that allows the cells to proliferate while being able to revert to their original phenotype.

• Xenova Group plc, of Slough, UK, said the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., presented data from a Phase I trial of tariquidar as an adjunctive treatment to chemotherapy, in children with a range of solid tumors, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting. Eighteen children have been enrolled to date, with one having a complete response, one a partial response and five with stable disease. A Phase III trial of tariquidar, which prevents tumor cells from becoming resistant to chemotherapy, was halted last year on safety grounds. The NCI also is planning Phase I trials in adults.

• XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., of Rehovot, Israel, and Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., agreed to a worldwide development and commercialization license of an investigational monoclonal antibody belonging to XTL. Known as HepeX-B, the product is in a Phase IIb study for the prevention of re-infection by the hepatitis B virus in liver transplant patients. The companies will continue the ongoing international study and, if successful, will continue late-stage clinical development. Cubist will fund HepeX-B's development costs going forward, and will be solely responsible for the product's worldwide registration and commercialization. In exchange, it will pay XTL collaboration support and an up-front payment totaling $3 million over the next two years, and might pay an additional $3 million upon certain regulatory milestones. Cubist also committed to pay XTL a tiered royalty that ranges from 10 percent to 17 percent of net sales.