• ActivX Biosciences Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., entered an agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., to further characterize the activity of certain research compounds supplied by Gilead. ActivX will use its technology to analyze specific proteins to provide a greater understanding of the biological activity of Gilead's compounds. Financial terms of the agreement were not reported.

• Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., said it is making available several of its patents for licensing. Those include intellectual property in areas such as DNA and protein arrays, scanner and detector technology, microfluidics and the use of beads to measure nucleic acids or peptide binding for genomic analysis. Affymetrix also announced results of a successful preclinical trial of its GeneChip CustomSeq resequencing array to classify meningitis strains. The array correctly classified 45 samples previously identified by traditional methods, as well as 12 previously nontyped samples.

• Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., of San Diego, through its wholly owned subsidiary PFC Therapeutics LLC, and Nycomed Danmark ApS, of Roskilde, Denmark, entered a deal for Nycomed to develop and commercialize Oxygent in Europe. Oxygent (perflubron emulsion) is a patent-protected synthetic oxygen carrier that Alliance has evaluated in late-stage clinical studies for avoidance of red-blood-cell transfusions during surgery. Nycomed will be responsible for the remaining clinical and regulatory development and future marketing of Oxygent within a broad European territory. The agreement also includes an option for Nycomed to acquire Oxygent rights for China.

• Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said the initial purchasers in its recent private placement of $175 million of 2.5 percent convertible senior notes due 2011 elected to exercise their option to purchase an additional $25 million in principal amount of the notes. The exercise of the option will bring the gross proceeds to $200 million upon closing. The closing of the private placement was expected to occur April 6, subject to customary conditions. The notes will be initially convertible at the option of the holder into Amylin stock at $34.35 per share, subject to adjustment. The initial conversion price represents a 45 percent premium over the closing bid price of Amylin stock on March 31.

• Applied Biosystems Group, of Foster City, Calif., said its expression array system is commercially available worldwide. The product combines gene-detection capabilities with integration to Applied's gene-expression products, such as its TaqMan gene-expression assays, TaqMan low-density array, Celera Discovery System and real-time PCR systems.

• Ardais Corp., of Lexington, Mass., expanded its agreement with Aventis SA, of Strasbourg, France, to assess the potential of certain biological targets in Aventis' R&D pipeline. Ardais will combine the resources of its Biomaterials and Information for Genomic Research Library of tissues and associated patient data with its immunohistochemistry profiling to optimize validation assays and assist in the characterization of each target in panels of normal and diseased human tissue. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Array BioPharma Inc., of Boulder, Colo., began a drug discovery collaboration with Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, to create a series of small-molecule drug leads against a Takeda target. The companies also have an existing research agreement that began in 2001. Takeda will pay Array fees based on the number of Array scientists working on the research phase of the agreement. Array will be entitled to development milestone payments and royalties on potential sales.

• Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Norristown, Pa., and Ipsen SA, of Paris, entered a license and distribution agreement for the marketing of Auxilium's product Testim 1 percent testosterone gel. Ipsen will hold marketing and distribution rights in all countries except the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Japan. Auxilium will receive milestone and royalty payments. Testim is a topical gel formulation that normalizes low levels of testosterone in men with hypogonadism. It was launched in the U.S. in early 2003.

• Bioxel Pharma Inc., of Sainte-Foy, Quebec, said it would receive a $2.5 million loan from Investissement Quebec. The financing will allow Bioxel to continue to develop its operations to manufacture paclitaxel and 10-DAB, and to intensify research into new targeted oncology drugs. Bioxel will pay an interest rate of 1.5 percent above Investissement's prime rate. Investissement also will gain a stock option on 714,286 of Bioxel's common shares.

• Centocor Inc., of Malvern, Pa., said the FDA accepted its filing of a supplemental biologics license application for Remicade (infliximab) as first-line therapy, in combination with methotrexate, for the treatment of early rheumatoid arthritis patients with moderately to severely active disease. Remicade, in combination with methotrexate, is indicated in the U.S. for reducing signs and symptoms, inhibiting the progression of structural damage and improving physical function in patients with moderately to severely active RA who have had an inadequate response to methotrexate alone.

• Chemical Diversity Labs Inc., of San Diego, a provider of discovery chemistry services, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, which is acting on behalf of the Laboratory for Drug Discovery in Neurodegeneration (LDDN), entered a collaboration aimed at discovering new tools for understanding and treating neurodegenerative diseases. CDL will design and supply a small-molecule discovery library to LDDN for screening in LDDN's models of neurodegenerative disease. CDL will employ its large small-molecule collection and Chemosoft in silico technology platform to select compounds for biological screening against LDDN's biological targets. LDDN will provide CDL with screening data for creating second-generation screening libraries. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newtown, Pa., began patient screening and enrollment in a Phase III study to evaluate Periostat MR in adult periodontitis. Periostat MR is a once-daily formulation of Periostat, which was approved in 1998 for adult periodontitis. The study will enroll more than 200 patients in the U.S. and the UK.

• DeCode Genetics Inc., of Reykjavik, Iceland, is proposing an offer of up to $100 million in senior convertible notes due 2011. The notes will be convertible into DeCode common stock at a price to be determined. DeCode expects to grant the initial purchasers an option to purchase up to $25 million more in notes. It said it would use the proceeds to advance its drug and diagnostic development programs, as well as for general corporate purposes.

• Entelos Inc., of Foster City, Calif., received a milestone payment from NV Organon, of Oss, the Netherlands, for delivering targets for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In the collaboration, Entelos conducted in silico research and completed more than 20,000 simulated experiments in the Entelos RA PhysioLab platform.

• EraGen Biosciences, of Madison, Wis., received written validation of its molecular diagnostic technology from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing. The validation was for EraGen's severe acute respiratory syndrome diagnostic test.

• Forbes Medi-Tech Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said FM-VP4, its cholesterol-lowering compound, met its primary endpoint of significantly lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in a Phase II trial. Patients showed an 11 percent reduction in LDL cholesterol. However, the company needs to conduct further trials to determine the drug's optimum dose and duration. Forbes Medi-Tech said it will pursue its program to develop an adjunctive therapy to statins, which has a projected market potential of $4.7 billion in 2011. The company's stock (NASDAQ:FMTI) dropped 53 percent, or $3.73, on Tuesday, to close at $3.33. The Phase II study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation trial that consisted of four groups of 25 hypercholesterolemic volunteers treated daily for 28 days with either placebo or escalating doses of FM-VP4.

• Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., signed agreements with the University of Rochester and the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research to develop and launch tests for cardiac conditions. Genaissance gains access to clinical expertise, research samples and associated data as part of the agreements. It expects to launch in May the first test, a genetic test for cardiac ion channel mutations, including mutations responsible for causing Familial Long QT and Brugada syndromes.

• Generex Biotechnology Corp., of Toronto, reported at the recent American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Orlando, Fla., on an approach to cancer vaccination developed by scientists and collaborators at its Antigen Express subsidiary. The Antigen Express technology induces special receptors for endogenous tumor antigenic peptides, the major histocompatibility complex Class II molecules, in the absence of the immunoregulatory Ii protein. The method cures about half of the mice treated in advanced preclinical animal studies, it said.

• MediGene AG, of Martinsried, Germany, is preparing to begin a Phase II trial of Polyphenon E ointment to treat actinic keratosis. The trial is expected to start in the second quarter and will evaluate the product's efficacy and safety. The company recently announced positive Phase III data of the ointment to treat genital warts. Results from the new Phase II trial are expected in 2005. If marketed for both indications, the product has an annual market potential of $363 million, it said.

• Morphotek Inc., of Exton, Pa., said that Centocor Inc., of Malvern, Pa., confirmed the development of a high-titer antibody-producing cell line from the companies' research collaboration. The development resulted in an undisclosed milestone payment to Morphotek. The cell line comes from a research program that uses Morphotek's Morphodoma technology, which evolves lead mammalian cell lines to generate subclones.

• Norak Biosciences Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., signed a nonexclusive license agreement with the Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB) in Taiwan. Norak licensed DCB certain rights to practice the Transfluor technology for high-content screening of a defined number of G protein-coupled receptor targets of interest to DCB against its own compound libraries in Taiwan. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Deerfield, Ill., acquired for cash exclusive North American rights from Aventis SA, of Strasbourg, France, for two central nervous system products, Sabril and Frisium. Financial terms were not disclosed. Ovation will assume clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization responsibilities for the products. Sabril and Frisium are marketed in Canada and Mexico to treat various epilepsy conditions. Ovation plans to pursue FDA approval for both drugs in the U.S.

• Panacea Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., was awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Aging in Bethesda, Md. It will provide funding toward the evaluation of the toxicity, efficacy and mechanism of action of PAN-811 and its derivatives as neuroprotectants for global and focal ischemia.

• Pharmacyclics Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., said the underwriter of its previously reported public offering of about 2.7 million shares of common stock exercised its overallotment option, consisting of 417,391 shares of common stock. As a result, a total of 3.2 million shares will be sold at the closing of the offering, which is expected to occur today following satisfaction of certain conditions. Net proceeds are expected to be about $39.6 million. All of the shares to be sold are newly issued.

• Prolexys Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Salt Lake City, signed a research collaboration with the Arizona Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. The parties will work to discover peptides and small molecules that modulate vascular tone and effectively treat clinical conditions associated with vasospasm and vasoconstriction. Prolexys will employ a peptide-based pull-down approach to characterize and isolate proteins involved in the pathway. The proteins will be used to create assays for screenings to find modulators of the vasodilation process in smooth muscle.

• Target Discovery Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and PrecisionMed Inc., of San Diego, a human sample biobank and clinical trial organization, entered a research collaboration designed to test competing theories concerning the mechanism of childhood autism. PrecisionMed will be responsible for collecting samples from accurately characterized clinical cases of autism patients, while Target Discovery will use its metabolomics and systems biology modeling technology to analyze those samples. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Targeted Genetics Corp., of Seattle, formally terminated its joint venture, Emerald Gene Systems Ltd., with Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland. The venture's operating activities concluded in August 2002. With the formal termination, Elan has converted all shares of Targeted Genetics' Series B preferred stock into about 4.3 million shares of Targeted Genetics common stock. Following conversion of Series B preferred stock, Elan will hold about 12.1 million shares of Targeted Genetics. Formed in July 1999, Emerald Gene Systems was focused on the development of additional applications of Targeted Genetics' nonviral gene-delivery capabilities.

• The Immune Response Corp., of Carlsbad, Calif., said Oregon Health Sciences University received an Immune Tolerance Network grant to provide research funding for Immune Response's NeuroVax to treat multiple sclerosis. NeuroVax is a T-cell-receptor peptide vaccine designed to treat MS through an immunological mechanism of action. The grant will support additional biological assay studies to be performed as part of the trial that will investigate the mechanisms of action of NeuroVax and establish additional efficacy endpoints. Immune Response also said that an audit opinion of BDO Seidman LLP contained a going-concern qualification in the company's annual report filed with the SEC.

• The Structural Genomics Consortium, of Oxford, UK, and Toronto, chose CrystalMation from RoboDesign International Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., as its standard protein crystal imaging and analysis technology. CrystalMation is a modular and automated protein crystallization platform, which includes systems for liquid handling, low-volume dispense, imaging, storage and analysis.

• Varian Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., said it made a strategic equity investment in ChenomX Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, a private company focused on metabolic profiling. Chenomx's Eclipse bioprofiling software can be used with data acquired from Varian's nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers for metabonomic studies. The two companies entered a distribution agreement in September 2003 for Varian to market the Eclipse software worldwide.

• Vivus Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., signed an agreement for a line of credit with Tanabe Seikayu Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan. The facility allows Vivus to borrow up to $8.5 million to be used for development of avanafil (TA-1790), Vivus' erectile dysfunction compound now in Phase II trials. In March 2001, Vivus reported that it had licensed avanafil, a selective phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor from Tanabe.

• Y's Therapeutics, of Tokyo, and Lonza Group Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, reported an agreement in which Lonza Biologics will collaborate with Y's on cell line construction and production of a humanized monoclonal antibody for YSCMA program, one of Y's Therapeutics projects in the area of cancer and immune diseases. Financial terms were not disclosed.