• Alantos Pharmaceuticals AG, of Heidelberg, Germany, appointed Keith Dionne chairman and CEO. Dionne came from Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., where he worked for seven years, ending as vice president of research and development strategy, as well as general manager of Millennium's technology business. Alantos is developing a pipeline based on its target-amplified drug candidate evolution technology.

• Altana AG, of Bad Homburg, Germany, said additional efficacy results of Daxas (roflumilast) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were presented at the 45th Congress of the German Society of Pulmonology in Frankfurt. The study enrolled more than 1,400 patients in 11 countries. They were treated for 24 weeks with either placebo or a dose of Daxas at 250 micrograms or 500 micrograms. Results showed that the exacerbation rate was reduced at a statistically significant level. The drug, a selective phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor, is for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. Altana is developing it worldwide with New York-based Pfizer Inc., expect in Japan, where it is partnered with Tanabe Seiyaku Co. Ltd. In February, Altana filed for marketing approval in Europe.

• Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics BV, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, said it obtained orphan status from the European Commission for its gene therapy treatment for lipoprotein lipase deficiency, a condition that affects at least 5,000 patients in the western world. The company aims to commence human trials in 2005.

• Beta-O2, of Petach Tikva, Israel, a chimeric biotechnology-medical device company, announced that it had raised $2 million from Vitalife (Vertex) and the state-owned Heznek fund. Beta-O2 was officially founded about two months ago. The start-up's CEO Chanan Schneider told BioWorld International that the company "is confident that it will be able to solve the technological problem of supplying oxygen to pancreatic islet cells, which had been the cause of previous failures of transplanted tissue." Schneider is former manager of Discount Capital Markets' investment branch, which backed Vitalife and still manages the fund. Beta-O2 was founded by two Israeli physicians and the entrepreneur Yossi Gross. The company aims to produce a biologically based tissue-machine hybrid to produce insulin.

• DevCo Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of London, completed a confirmatory safety trial of lexipafant, being developed to prevent organ dysfunction linked with coronary artery bypass graft and to treat acute pancreatitis and HIV-associated cognitive/motor dysfunction. The trial was conducted in 24 people at a UK site. Subjects received intravenous infusions of 400 mg and 800 mg a day for three days. Plasma levels achieved resulted in 70 percent inhibition of platelet activating factor activated neutrophil function during the fusion period.

• EsbaTech AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, and Viventia Biotech Inc., of Toronto, entered a collaboration to establish whether EsbaTech's antibody stabilization and expression technologies could enhance the activities of recombinant antibody fragments developed by Viventia for oncology applications. EsbaTech will receive an up-front payment and research funding, while Viventia has an option to license its technology for clinical development. EsbaTech would receive milestone payments and eventual product royalties.

• The Finnish Venture Capital Association reported that venture capital investment in life sciences firms in Finland dropped 25 percent to €42 million in 2003, down from €56 million in 2002. Average deal size dropped from more than €650,000 to €500,000. Last year, 84 financing deals were completed, while 86 investments were carried out in 2002.

• Genovac GmbH, of Freiburg, Germany, was acquired by Aldevron, of Fargo, N.D. Aldevron specializes in producing plasmid DNA and vaccines for both research and clinical use. An Aldevron representative said the acquisition gave access to Genovac's technology for antibody production. Financial details were not disclosed.

• The German Ministry for Education and Research is providing financial support for research into nanotechnology. During the next four years, the Ministry will commit €200 million to projects in the nanotech field, with particular emphasis on applications in the automotive, optic, pharmaceutical and medical, and electronics sectors. Support for biotechnology will come from a program called NanoForLife. Small and medium-sized companies also could benefit from the NanoChance program, which is designed to channel funds to smaller and newer companies. The amount per sector has not been decided.

• Helsinn Healthcare SA, of Lugano, Switzerland, signed an agreement granting exclusive license and distribution rights to palonosetron in Spain to Italfarmaco SpA, of Milan, Italy. The highly selective 5-HT3 receptor antagonist for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting got FDA approval last summer. Marketed in the U.S. as Aloxi by MGI Pharma Inc., of Minneapolis, the product is under review in Europe, where it will be called Onicit. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• ID Business Solutions, of Guildford, UK, entered several collaborations to provide its ActivityBase software suite to organizations in Australia. Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Alchemia Ltd. adopted the software to manage their chemical and biological drug discovery data.

• LION bioscience AG, of Heidelberg, Germany, and DigiGenomics Co. Ltd., of Cambridge, Mass., reported a project with Wan Fang Municipal Hospital in Taipei for the development of the severe acute respiratory syndrome Knowledge Management System in Taiwan. LION's SRS technology, including the SRS Relational Module, will be used to access and integrate data from bioinformatic and medical databases with an architecture designed to give physicians rapid access to medical records, clinical assays and recommended treatments.

• Micromet AG, of Munich, Germany, began a Phase II trial to investigate the efficacy and safety of MT201 for the treatment of breast cancer patients who have experienced a metastatic relapse. The randomized, open-label, international study will evaluate the response to two different dose levels of the compound in two parallel treatment groups. The multicenter European trial will enroll about 100 patients. Micromet's Phase II program for MT201 also includes prostate cancer.

• Neuro3d, of Mulhouse, France, initiated Phase II trials of its schizophrenia drug ocaperidone, which it in-licensed from Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, of Beerse, Belgium, in March 2002. A Phase I trial of the drug was completed in October, demonstrating that ocaperidone is a antipsychotic that does not have the adverse cardiovascular and weight-gain side effects typical of such drugs, it said. Neuro3d is focused on drugs for central nervous system diseases.

• Pieris Proteolab AG, of Freising, Germany, said Digical neutralized lethal toxicity caused by an overdose of the cardiac steroid digoxin in a preclinical study. The dose was only about half the recommended dose of a marketed polyclonal antibody fragment product approved for the same purpose. Pieris has generated lipocalin muteins named Anticalins against several protein targets with very high affinity and specificity.

• Prima BioMed Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, said its subsidiary CancerVac and Biomira Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, entered an agreement for the development and commercialization of CancerVac's lead product, Mannan-MUC1 fusion protein therapeutic vaccine. Biomira will provide access to its licensed exclusive worldwide rights to MUC1. Biomira acquired a 10 percent equity stake in CancerVac and a seat on CancerVac's board. Biomira has the option of licensing the exclusive, worldwide commercialization rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand, following conclusion of a Phase IIa trial in ovarian cancer. Biomira would cover all development costs going forward if it exercises its option, or 50 percent of all development costs, if it only takes on the North American rights. Specific financial details were not disclosed, but the deal could include up-front and milestone payments to CancerVac totaling A$20 million (US$15.4 million), as well as royalties.

• Purely Proteins Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, started its commercial protein-purification program designed to accelerate and enhance the drug discovery and development process. The first products from the program are related to the Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase (PTP) protein family. The company is using its TargetBASE database to define relationships between the PTPs, enabling researchers to better understand and exploit the links between different PTPs and the drugs that bind to them.

• Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, said it is working with the Center for Disease Control of China to develop a human influenza vaccine. Sinovac has finished the research protocol and has started working toward a vaccine.

• ThromboGenics Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, and NuVue Technologies Inc., of Keene, N.H., entered a collaboration to develop plasmin-based products to treat visual disorders. The products are ThromboGenics' recombinant microplasmin and NuVue's autologous plasmin. Plasmin products have been shown to be effective for the induction of posterior vitreous detachment. The collaboration brings the plasmin products and intellectual property into a single portfolio.

• Vaekstfonden, of Copenhagen, Denmark, formed a strategic alliance with London-based Merlin BioSciences Ltd. to target investment opportunities in the Danish biotechnology industry. As part of the agreement, Vaekstfonden has committed DKK75 million (US$12.4 million) to Merlin's Fund III. The deal represents state-owned Vaekstfonden's first investment in an international venture capital fund.