• Abgenix Inc., of Fremont, Calif., filed a $250 million mixed shelf registration statement with the SEC. The company, a developer of antibody products, would be able to sell up to that amount worth of preferred or common stock, debt and warrants, should the registration become effective.

• Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., said it is taking orders for its new GeneChip Drosophila Genome 2.0 array. The design of the array was largely based on the content from the recent annotation of the Drosophila melanogaster genome, Affymetrix said.

• Amnis Corp., of Seattle, reported early access installation of its ImageStream 100 cell-analysis system at the University of Washington's Cell Systems Initiative (CSI). The ImageStream technology is designed to provide capabilities including the ability to perform ultra-high-speed multispectral microscopy on cells in flow. CSI will use the ImageStream technology for a number of studies, including analyses of the interaction of two key cells in the immune system, the T cell and the dendritic cell.

• Australian Cancer Technology Ltd., of Perth, Australia, raised A$3 million (US$2.3 million) after placing about 9.5 million ordinary shares with investors. The shares were sold at about A$0.32 apiece, a 17 percent discount to the volume-weighted average trading price for the year to date. The company said the funding would provide additional working capital to develop its oncology projects and progress previously reported negotiations aimed at expanding its product portfolio in the U.S. and UK. The placement was fully underwritten by Jaguar Advisory Services Pty. Ltd.

• BD Bioscience Clontech, of San Jose, Calif., a unit of Becton, Dickinson & Co., launched BD QZyme quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays, which are designed to help researchers quantify relative or absolute abundance of one or more genes of interest among biological samples. The assays can be used in several areas of research, including gene expression analysis of tumor and normal tissues in cancer research and target validation in drug discovery.

• BioMosaics Inc., of Burlington, Vt., began a study to measure a continuum of biomarker responses in female and male workers exposed to 1,3-butadiene in the workplace. It will compare responses and susceptibility to 1,3-butadiene, a product of combustion used primarily in the synthesis of synthetic rubber. BioMosaics is developing products for the early diagnosis, prediction, monitoring and treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease.

• CytRx Corp., of Los Angeles, bolstered its scientific advisory board with the addition of Craig Mello, a co-discoverer of the gene-silencing RNA interference (RNAi) technology. On staff at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, he is listed as an inventor on the first-approved patent for the use of double-stranded RNA for gene silencing. Mello also was named to the scientific advisory board of CytRx's subsidiary, Araios Inc. CytRx is developing RNAi-based products.

• Diatos SA, of Paris, expanded its operations with the opening of a new research and development center in Leuven, Belgium. Last year the company reported a €7 million round of financing, of which €3 million came from the venture fund Biotech Fund Flanders, earmarked for the new research and development subsidiary in Flanders, Belgium. Diatos is focused on therapies for cancer and other diseases.

• Gene Logic Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., expanded its contract study services facilities located in Gaithersburg. The company completed construction of additional laboratory space dedicated to its preclinical toxicology studies. The expansion includes a specialized teratology suite and neurotoxicology suite, as well as additional study rooms.

• Genzyme Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., remains the subject of a lawsuit after a federal judge refused to dismiss a suit brought by former stockholders of Genzyme Biosurgery, which the parent company eliminated as a publicly traded tracking stock last June. The plaintiffs said the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected every argument made by the defendants in which they requested dismissal of the lawsuit, which seeks damages related to the forced elimination of the tracking stock. The complaint asserts that the defendants intentionally mismanaged Genzyme Biosurgery, manipulating its tracking stock price and fraudulently managing its earnings, in order to later eliminate the Biosurgery stock at an artificially low price, below the actual value of the business. In November, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit. (See BioWorld Today, May 12, 2003, and June 5, 2003.)

• Geron Corp., of Menlo Park, Calif., said that the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a decision on motions filed in a proceeding between Geron and Advanced Cell Technology Corp., of Worcester, Mass. The decision finds all claims in the issued ACT nuclear transfer patent to be unpatentable. All motions filed by ACT were denied, including motions against the patentability of Geron's claims. The patent involved is U.S. Patent No. 5,945,577, which is licensed to ACT from the University of Massachusetts.

• Interferon Sciences Inc., of New Brunswick, N.J., completed the sale of its assets to Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., of Toronto. As part of the transaction, Interferon Sciences received 424,528 shares of Hemispherx common stock with a guaranteed value of about $675,000, as well as 62,500 shares without a guaranteed value. The company also will receive a 6 percent royalty of the net sales of any products containing natural alpha-interferon that are sold by Hemispherx or a marketing partner. Hemispherx also satisfied certain obligations relating to the real estate, machinery and equipment of Interferon Sciences, which aggregated about $2.5 million.

• Jerini AG, of Berlin, entered an agreement for the production and supply of its lead compound, Icatibant, with Bachem AG, of Bubendorf, Switzerland. The product, a synthetic decapeptide (peptidomimetic) with a similar structure to bradykinin, is being tested in several clinical trials to treat refractory ascites in liver cirrhosis, as well as hereditary angioedema. Bachem will supply Jerini with the product for its trials, and will oversee process validation and necessary documentation for the registration process. Jerini said it plans to bring Icatibant to the market for angioedema by 2006. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Medical Discoveries Inc., of Twin Falls, Idaho, received preclinical reports from the University of Washington Medical School, showing that MDI-P could potentially treat sepsis. MDI-P showed a substantial benefit to mice when compared with placebo and a 50 percent survival effect comparable to the antibiotic Gentamicin, but without the toxicity profile that Gentamicin exhibits, it said. Medical Discoveries plans to file an investigational new drug application with the FDA for MDI-P in HIV late this year or early in 2005.

• Microbiotix Inc., of Worcester, Mass., received a two-year, Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a unit of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The company said it would use the grant to support the development of MBX-300 for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus infection.

• Novozymes A/S, of Bagsvaerd, Denmark, intends to expand its operations in South Africa by purchasing the remaining 51 percent of Enzymes SA Pty. Ltd. The company currently owns the other 49 percent. It expects the acquisition to be completed in July. Novozymes plans to increase its focus on the growing sub-Saharan and South African market. The Enzymes management team will continue to lead Novozyme's South African subsidiary. Financial details were not disclosed.

• Panacea Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., entered a collaborative research and development agreement with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to evaluate the efficacy, toxicity and mechanism of action of PAN-811 and its derivatives as neuroprotectants for global and focal ischemia. Panacea developed several cell-based screening assays modeling ischemic neuronal cell death to identify the small molecule PAN-811. Panacea will draw on the institute's knowledge to investigate apoptotic neuronal cell death and to determine genomic response to brain injury.

• Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, presented clinical data for R112 to treat allergic rhinitis at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in San Francisco. The Phase I/II trial showed that R112 was well tolerated and had favorable biological effects, demonstrating a statistically significant decrease in prostaglandin D2. The randomized, double-blind, crossover study evaluated 20 patients. Rigel plans to begin Phase II trials in the second quarter.

• Transgene SA, of Strasbourg, France, reported Phase II data of MVA-HPV-IL2 in human papillomavirus-related disease. The trial's primary endpoint aimed to show efficacy as measured by the elimination of the cervical intraepithelial neoplasia lesions at six weeks. Analysis of 27 evaluable patients showed an excellent tolerance of the product candidate. Partial clinical or histological responses, which in some cases cleared the virus, were seen in five out of 15 patients treated with the high dose. The company plans to conduct more studies of the product in cervical dysplasia and the earlier stage of silent HPV infection. MVA-HPV-IL2 also was tested in 20 people with vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia, but it showed no significant difference from placebo, possibly due to the low dose used and the advanced stage of the patients, the company said.