• Aerogen Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., said stockholders approved the second closing of a $32.7 million financing. In the transaction, the company sold 642,113 shares of Series A-1 convertible preferred stock, as well as warrants for about 6.2 million shares, in exchange for gross proceeds of about $17.7 million and the surrender of all outstanding secured convertible debentures. Aerogen develops products based on its OnQ Aerosol Generator technology to treat respiratory disorders in the acute-care setting. The first tranche was disclosed in March. (See BioWorld Today, March 25, 2004.)

• Algeta AS, of Oslo, Norway, said findings published in the May 2004 issue of Nuclear Medicine and Biology describe the potential usefulness of liposomes as carriers for alpha particle-emitting radionuclides. The data demonstrate that alpha particle-emitting actinium and radium radionuclides might be loaded into preformed PEG-liposomes. The formulations appear to be stable in serum with low release of the radionuclide, indicating the potential as carriers in targeted cancer therapies, the company said.

• AntiCancer Inc., of San Diego, said a recent article in the Journal of Clinical Investigation describes how its scientists and collaborators at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center used the company's MetaMouse model of metastatic human prostate cancer to determine genetic signatures to predict whether patients would have recurrence of prostate cancer. The company said its model, used in combination with modern methods of gene profiling, allows for a more discriminating test for predicting prostate cancer recurrence. Existing procedures include blood tests such as the prostate-specific antigen test and other standard pathological examinations.

• The Audubon Nature Institute, of New Orleans, said it produced the world's first cloned female wild carnivores, a pair of African wildcats. Their births last month follow three cloned male wildcat births late last year. The clones were produced through wildcat DNA inserted into a domestic cat egg cell. After an electric pulse fused the wildcat DNA with the egg, which divided to become an embryo, it was implanted into the uterus of a domestic cat surrogate that eventually birthed the clones. The research was conducted through a collaborative effort with Louisiana State University Agricultural Center.

• Bioenvision Inc., of New York, said it raised an additional $3.5 million through the sale of common stock to institutional investors as part of a participation-rights closing. Investors in the offering, including Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, Orbimed Advisors, DWS Investments and Scudder Global Biotechnology Fund, also received warrants to purchase stock consistent with investors in the first closing of the transaction, through which the company received about $12.8 million after it closed March 22. SCO Securities LLC acted as exclusive placement agent. (See BioWorld Today, March 24, 2004.)

• Chiron Corp., of Emeryville, Calif., said holders of its Liquid Yield Option Notes due 2031 (LYONs) have the right to surrender their notes for purchase. Each holder has the right to require the company to purchase all or any part of the notes at a price equal to $584.31 per $1,000 of principal amount at maturity. Chiron elected to pay the purchase price solely with cash as per its option to pay with cash, common stock or a combination of both. If all outstanding LYONs are surrendered for purchase, the aggregate cash purchase price will total about $426.5 million. The LYONs are convertible at any time before maturity into about 7.16 shares of Chiron stock per $1,000 principal amount at maturity, subject to certain circumstances.

• Corgentech Inc., of South San Francisco, said its E2F Decoy (edifoligide) product might be covered by new government guidelines. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a new ICD-9-CM procedure code for pressurized treatment of venous bypass graft [conduit] with pharmaceutical substance on its website. The company's product is a transcription-factor decoy delivered with uniform pressure. Corgentech is partnered with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of New York, to jointly develop and commercialize E2F Decoy and co-promote it in the U.S.

• Discovery Partners International Inc., of San Diego, received about $5.1 million after underwriters from a public offering of its shares fully exercised their overallotment option. Last week, Celera Genomics Group, of Rockville, Md., sold about 7.2 million shares of Discovery Partners, an equity stake it acquired in its 2001 purchase of Axys Pharmaceuticals Inc. Discovery Partners priced about 1.1 million shares at $5 apiece to cover overallotments. SG Cowen & Co. LLC was the lead manager, while Merriman Curhan Ford & Co. and Roth Capital Partners were co-managers. (See BioWorld Today, May 7, 2004.)

• Elite Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Northvale, N.J., named President and CEO Bernard Berk its chairman. He succeeds John Moore, who agreed to remain a director. Last June, Berk came on board at the specialty pharmaceutical company, which develops oral, controlled-release products.

• Epeius Biotechnologies Corp., of Los Angeles, said an American pancreatic cancer patient treated in the Philippines responded favorably to Rexin-G, its tumor-targeted injectable gene therapy vector for metastatic cancer. The company said it gained FDA approval recently to open Phase I/II trials in the U.S., though the first clinical studies of Rexin-G for pancreatic cancer were conducted in the Philippines. Over a one-month period, Rexin-G induced a progressive reduction in the size of the patient's pancreatic tumor, and disappearance or shrinkage of his liver tumors without serious side effects.

• HepaLife Technologies Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said its liver cell-specific in vitro toxicology and preclinical drug testing platforms would be based on the PICM-19 pig liver stem cell line, which the company is testing for use in an artificial liver device. The PICM-19 cells grown in vitro synthesize liver-specific proteins, such as albumin and transferrin, and display enhanced liver-specific functions, such as ureagenesis and cytochrome P450 activity, the company said.

• Introgen Therapeutics Inc., of Austin, Texas, said preclinical data published in a recent issue of Molecular Therapy indicate that use of a nonviral gene delivery system results in prolonged expression of delivered genes in mice implanted with human lung tumors. Previous studies have demonstrated that nonviral delivery of lipid-DNA complexes induces immune responses in animals and humans. The company said the new data, produced in collaboration with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, provide the first evidence that the immune response to nonviral vectors is different between animals with and without tumors.

• NeurogesX Inc., of San Carlos, Calif., said results reported at the Neuropathic Pain - Changing Paradigms in Diagnosis and Treatment conference in Madrid, Spain, detailed a reduction in pain following use of its NGX-4010 product. More specifically, findings from a Phase II study and an open-label extension study showed an average of 12 weeks of sustained neuropathic pain reduction in post-herpetic neuralgia patients from a single, one-hour dermal patch application of the transcapsaicin dermal delivery system. Use of NGX-4010 resulted in a 33 percent reduction in average pain scores over the course of four weeks, the duration of the double-blinded portion, compared to a 4 percent reduction with a control treatment. The extension study showed that the treatment effects are sustained for an average of 12 weeks, with pain relief of up to a year in individual subjects.

• Oragenics Inc., of Alachua, Fla., said its common stock listing application was approved by the American Stock Exchange, though the approval remains contingent upon compliance with all listing standards on the date it begins trading. The company's common stock is expected to begin trading on AMEX as "ONI" on or around May 20. Currently listed as "OGEN" on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, its lead product is an oral rinse for tooth decay, and its other products include an antibiotic against Gram-positive bacteria and a probiotic product for oral health.

• Signet Laboratories Inc., of Dedham, Mass., released a new polyclonal antibody specific for the rodent form of beta-amyloid protein. The company called its antibody an effective tool for the identification and measurement of rodent beta-amyloid.

• Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., entered a marketing and distribution alliance with Shantha Biotechnics Pvt. Ltd., of Hyderabad, India, in which Spectrum will be responsible for all U.S. regulatory, marketing and distribution matters for certain products marketed by Shantha elsewhere and others under development. The product candidates include certain oncology biologics, cancer diagnostics, as well as certain vaccines. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bethesda, Md., completed patient treatment in its Phase II study of SPI-0211, its chloride channel activator for constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome. The study, which began in April 2003, randomized 195 male and female patients into four treatment groups (three doses of SPI- 0211 and placebo) at 19 U.S. sites. The company said it would soon obtain results.

• The Weill Cornell Medical College in New York said it would use a $15 million grant to establish the Ansary Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics, named for donors Shahla and Hushang Ansary. The research center will work to understand the regulation of cells that give rise to blood vessels, insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and neurons of the brain and nervous system.