• aaiPharma Inc., of Wilmington, N.C., named Frederick Sancilio CEO, following the resignation of Philip Tabbiner, who will help with the transition in a consulting position. Sancilio, aaiPharma's founder and executive chairman, served as chairman and CEO from 1979 until 2002. The specialty pharmaceutical company, which is focused on pain management, also appointed Gregory Rayburn its interim chief operating officer.

• Accelrys Inc., of San Diego, said it would resell hardware solutions from IBM Corp., of Armonk, N.Y., through an agreement that builds on an existing two-year partnership related to IBM-based solutions in the life sciences market. Accelrys is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pharmacopeia Inc., of Princeton, N.J.

• Aegera Therapeutics Inc., of Montreal, began Phase I trials of AEG35156/GEM640, an antisense inhibitor of x-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP), in collaboration with Cancer Research UK. AEG35156 is a second-generation antisense oligonucleotide, designed to reduce high levels of XIAP in cancer cells and enable cell death. The initial trial is in patients with advanced solid tumors.

• Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., sold 660,000 common shares pursuant to the full exercise of an overallotment option related to its previously reported public offering of 4.4 million shares. The shares were priced at $8.50 each, resulting in gross proceeds of about $43 million as the offering closed. Lehman Brothers Inc. acted as the offering's sole bookrunning manager, with co-management from Lazard Freres & Co.; Adams, Harkness & Hill Inc.; JMP Securities LLC; and Rodman & Renshaw LLC. Ariad priced the offering last week. (See BioWorld Today, March 25, 2004.)

• Astralis Ltd., of Fairfield, N.J., began a Phase II trial of Psoraxine. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of repeated administrations of the protein-based therapy in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis at three dose levels, compared to a placebo. The company expects 10 U.S. sites to enroll 120 patients, each of whom will receive a series of six intramuscular injections, once every two weeks, and then will be evaluated for an additional eight weeks without treatment.

• BioGentech Corp., of Irvine, Calif., said the FDA approved the company's plans to begin Phase III trials of its allergy drug Prehistin. BioGentech is studying the drug's ability to mitigate the symptoms of seasonal allergies. Prehistin is a sublingual lozenge requiring no physician visits or injections.

• BTG plc, of West Conshohocken, Pa., named Fulcrum Pharma Development Ltd., of Hemel Hempstead, UK, its preferred provider of preclinical and clinical development services in the therapeutic areas of oncology, aging and neuroscience. BTG said the contract work likely would include BGC 945, a cancer therapeutic, and BGC 20-1259 for Alzheimer's disease.

• Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc., of Richmond, Va., received a contract from the Department of the Army to provide analysis of test materials taken from the Pentagon's mail-sorting center for the presence of particular pathogens and toxins. Its test platforms use DNA-testing technologies and physical chemical analyses to provide identification.

• Cypress Bioscience Inc., of San Diego, said it intends to publicly offer 5 million common shares pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement. The company, which is selling all the stock, also intends to grant a 750,000-share overallotment option to the underwriters. The offering's bookrunning manager is Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., with co-management from CIBC World Markets Corp., Lazard Freres & Co. LLC and Jefferies & Co. Inc.

• Cytomedix Inc., of Little Rock, Ark., completed a $2.8 million private placement of preferred stock and warrants with an affiliate of Ritchie Capital Management LLC and individual investors. Cytomedix issued 280 shares of Series C convertible preferred stock with a face value of $10,000 per share. Each share is convertible into 10,000 shares of common stock. The company also issued five-year warrants to purchase 2.8 million shares of stock at $1.50 each. Burnham Hill Partners acted as exclusive placement agent.

• Fluidigm Corp., of South San Francisco, released its Topaz Growth Chip, the first in a new line of chips for generating large, diffraction-quality protein crystals. The company said that while Topaz screening chips have been shown to be highly effective as a screen to find conditions that produce crystal hits, the crystals produced from those preliminary screens might not be of a size and quality for X-ray diffraction. Topaz diffraction chips are designed to generate large, well-ordered crystals, the company said.

• Geron Corp., of Menlo Park, Calif., granted Xcellsyz Ltd., of Newcastle, UK, a nonexclusive license to its telomerase reverse transcriptase technology for research applications and the development of research products. Xcellsyz will use hTERT to create immortalized cell lines for in vitro use in drug discovery and screening. The license is limited to cell lines that also include a recombinant, conditionally inducible oncogene, using Xcellsyz's own technology. Geron will receive a license fee in cash and equity in Xcellsyz, as well as potential royalties.

• InSite Vision Inc., of Alameda, Calif., raised $2 million in an initial closing of a planned $16.5 million financing. It expects to receive the remaining $14.5 million once shareholders approve the issue of shares. InSite will seek approval from its shareholders at its annual meeting June 1. Paramount BioCapital Inc., of New York, is the placement agent for the financing. Once all of the money is raised, the company said it will have enough funds to take it through 2005, including the start of ISV-401 Phase III trials in ocular infection. In the initial closing, investors purchased 194 units. The final closing would include the sale of another 1,456 units. Each unit consists of 20,000 shares of InSite Vision common stock and 10,000 warrants.

• InterMune Inc., of Brisbane, Calif., entered an agreement to co-promote Aralast (alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor [human]), a product from Baxter Healthcare Corp., of Deerfield, Ill. InterMune's sales force will detail the product to pulmonologists in the U.S. for hereditary emphysema. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Medivir AB, of Huddinge, Sweden, and Peptimmune Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said they selected an orally active, small-molecule inhibitor of the protease enzyme Cathepsin S as a drug candidate. The partners said they would begin late-stage preclinical studies designed to support an investigational new drug application. The companies said Cathepsin S is a protease that plays a significant role in the activation of certain immune responses.

• Microbia Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., expanded its collaboration with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, to develop improved, higher-yielding biomanufacturing processes using Microbia's Precision Engineering technology. Teva will fund Microbia's efforts and make undisclosed milestone and royalty payments based on success, though more specific terms were not disclosed. The companies have collaborated on improving biomanufacturing processes for Teva products since February 2002.

• Miraculins Inc., of Winnipeg, Manitoba, raised C$2 million (US$1.53 million) through a private placement of 4 million units. Each is comprised of a common share and one-half of one-share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase a common share at C75 cents at any point within six months after the offering closes. The company, which is developing cancer products, said it would use the funds for research and development, as well as other working capital purposes. Bieber Securities Inc. is the transaction's agent.

• NeoRx Corp., of Seattle, opened enrollment in its Phase III trial of STR (Skeletal Targeted Radiotherapy), being developed for use with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation to treat multiple myeloma and other cancers. The trial is a multicenter, randomized, controlled study in patients with primary refractory multiple myeloma who have failed to achieve at least a partial response to conventional therapy. The trial will enroll about 240 evaluable patients to be split evenly between an experimental arm and a control arm. Those in the experimental arm will receive STR and melphalan, while those in the control arm will receive melphalan only, followed by transplantation. The primary endpoint is complete response indicating the disappearance of myeloma protein at six months post-transplant. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 2, 2003.)

• Probi AB, of Lund, Sweden, and Bioneer A/S, of H rsholm, Denmark, made discoveries about the mechanisms of action of a Probi bacteria product. They found enzymes on the surface of Lp299v previously found only within the cell of lactobacilli, a discovery that could play a role in modulating the immune system. Similar enzymes are present on the surface of pathogenic bacteria, indicating they might be involved in prohibiting infections.

• RNAx GmbH, of Berlin, signed a distribution agreement with Funakoshi Ltd., of Tokyo, related to RNAx's services for the validation of siRNA oligonucleotides and genetic targets based on RNA interference technology. Funakoshi will act as exclusive agent for RNAx in Japan, promoting RNAx's services in the Japanese market. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Serono Inc., of Rockland, Mass., said the FDA approved new presentations of Gonal-f (follitropin alfa for injection), including a 450 IU multidose vial and a 75 IU monodose vial. The product is indicated for the induction of ovulation and pregnancy as part of hormonal treatment for infertility and the development of multiple follicles as part of an assisted reproductive technology program.

• SRI International, of Menlo Park, Calif., acquired the intellectual property assets of Ceretek LLC, of Alameda, Calif., including rights to know-how and pending patent applications for endothelial differentiation gene (Edg) receptors 1 through 7 and their use in cancer, inflammation and other diseases. Ceretek also transferred its cell lines incorporating chimeric Edg receptors for screening purposes, its lead compounds and screening equipment. SRI's biosciences division will pursue further lead optimization and preclinical development of several Ceretek leads, and develop a grant-based discovery research program around the Edg receptors' roles in cancer and immunosuppression. SRI, which will seek to establish collaborations with university-based investigators, will pay a portion of commercialization revenue to Ceretek. More specific financial terms were not disclosed.

• The University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and Weill Cornell Medical School in New York said their researchers determined the complete genome sequence of Cryptosporidium, a common diarrhea-causing parasite found in drinking water. The finding was published in the March 25, 2004, online issue of Sciencexpress, to be followed next month in print in Science.

• Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., began a Phase II trial of Cloretazine (VNP40101M) as a single agent in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The company expects to accrue up to 80 patients in multiple U.S. and European sites. The study's objective is to determine the response rate of the cancer agent in patients with AML or high-risk MDS who are older than 60 years old and have not received prior chemotherapy, and AML patients of any age who have relapsed after a first complete remission that lasted less than 12 months.