• 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said it spun off an independent company, Quattro Research GmbH, which develops software solutions for the integration of chemical and biological data in drug discovery and development. Quattro draws on know-how and software developments within 4SC. Its 4Scan technology for the virtual screening of large data sets does not constitute part of the spin-off.

• Acambis plc, of Cambridge, UK, named Gordon Cameron CEO. He served as president of the U.S. division since March 2001. He came to Acambis in 1996 as chief financial officer. Separately, following discussions with the FDA, Acambis has temporarily withdrawn its Arilvax yellow fever vaccine biologics license application. A BLA can only be considered for review by the FDA if the facility at which the product is manufactured is scheduled for a pre-approval inspection during the 10-month period following BLA submission. The owner and manufacturer of Arilvax, Chiron Vaccines, a division of Chiron Corp., of Emeryville, Calif., is bringing forward its plans to upgrade the areas within its Speke, UK-based plant where the vaccine is manufactured. Therefore, the facility will not be ready for inspection. Acambis said it will work with the FDA and Chiron to minimize the time to re-submit the BLA. It is expected that Chiron Vaccines' manufacturing facility will be ready for inspection in the first half of 2005, at which time Acambis would re-submit the BLA. The BLA was filed in December.

• Acrux Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, closed a deal with Vivus Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., involving a transdermal spray delivery technology for female sexual dysfunction and menopause. Privately held Acrux will receive $13 million in licensing fees and royalty payments upon the commercialization of each product, to which Vivus gained exclusive U.S. rights with the ability to sublicense. Acrux, which is free to license the products elsewhere in the world, was advised by Burrill & Co., of San Francisco.

• Artemis Pharmaceuticals GmbH, of Cologne, Germany, and Aventis Pharma R&D, a unit of Aventis SA, of Strasbourg, France, signed several agreements in the area of mouse genetics. More specifically, Artemis will use its ArteMice platform to generate genetically engineered mice for Aventis, which will use the mice in drug research activities for gene function analysis and for the testing of drug candidates. In addition, Artemis is providing Aventis with licenses to certain cre transgenic mice, including the CreER-gene switch mouse. Aventis will use the mice to elucidate gene function in vivo by altering gene expression in certain tissues, or in all tissues in the adult mouse. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Australian Cancer Technology Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, said it intends to list on the Nasdaq market through the use of American depository receipts. It will employ Global Markets Capital Group LLC, of New York, for advice on the process, as well as in developing corporate activities such as U.S. merger and acquisition initiatives. The company's pipeline includes a cancer vaccine called Pentrix.

• Biofrontera Pharmaceuticals GmbH, of Leverkusen, Germany, won a €4 million, two-year research grant from the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia. The grant will support the company's drug discovery efforts, with particular emphasis on drug candidates targeting chronic pain and Parkinson's disease. The money comes from the state's Technology and Innovation Program, which targets research-intensive companies. Biofrontera, which was founded in 1998, concentrates on diseases of the central nervous system.

• CellaVision AB, of Lund, Sweden, said the CellaVisionDM96 automated, digital-cell morphology system was cleared by the FDA for sale in the U.S. The system is the next generation of the company's first product, DiffMaster Octavia. The CellaVisionDM96 locates and pre-classifies blood cells by means of automatic microscopy and advanced image processing.

• Compugen Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel, said Abbott Laboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill., extended its agreement with Compugen, under which Abbott uses Compugen's technology for the identification and prioritization of drug targets across multiple therapeutic areas. Terms of the agreement provide Abbott with several updates of Compugen's Genecarta genome, transcriptome and proteome database, which also includes an intuitive graphical user interface and flexible query tools. Financial details were not disclosed.

• Cyprotex plc, of Macclesfield, UK, agreed to a deal with the pharmaceutical arm of Solvay SA, of Brussels, Belgium, to screen preclinical compounds using its Cloe Screen, a virtual screening system that predicts how compounds will be metabolized.

• Cytopia Pty. Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, and Myomatrix Therapeutics LLC, of Rensselaer, N.Y., said they achieved a milestone in their collaboration to develop treatments for cardiovascular disorders, including heart failure. Kinase inhibitors developed by Cytopia have been shown to block signaling pathways in cardiac myocytes that are associated with heart failure. The new data showed that in the in vitro cardiac myocyte model, Cytopia's specific molecules are more effective than the molecules tested in previous work at the State University of New York.

• DxS Ltd., of Manchester, UK, a rapid genotyping services specialist, announced a contract for its Scorpions genotyping technology with Sangtec Molecular Diagnostics AB, of Stockholm, Sweden. SMD will use the technology in its oncology and infectious disease diagnostic tests.

• Evotec OAI AG, of Hamburg, Germany, rearranged its executive committee and said a new chief scientific officer will be named in June, when current Chief Scientific Officer Timm Jessen steps down. Ian Hunneyball, formerly president of the company's discovery program's division, will succeed Jessen. Mark Ashton, currently the company's director of discovery chemistry, has been named president of drug discovery services, as well a member of the company's executive committee. Mario Polywka returns to Evotec as president of chemical and pharmaceutical development and also will be on the executive committee.

• Gene Bridges GmbH, of Dresden, Germany, completed a nonexclusive license agreement of its Red/ET Recombination technology with Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J. Red/ET Recombination, also known as ET cloning or Lambda-mediated cloning, allows DNA constructs to be designed and created without size or site restrictions. The license includes the use of Red/ET Recombination technologies for numerous applications in DNA engineering.

• GPC Biotech AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said data published in this month's issue of Chemistry and Biology described its drug-target interaction technology, LeadCode. Human protein kinases represent a family of more than 500 enzymes that are drug targets for various therapeutic areas, including cancer. In the published study, LeadCode was applied to several cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) inhibitors. GPC has a program to develop Cdk inhibitors as anticancer drugs. Also, GPC said in vitro data reported at the International Society of Chemotherapy meeting in Florence, Italy, pointed to the efficacy of satraplatin in tumor cells resistant to both Taxotere (docetaxel) and Taxol (paclitaxel). The study evaluated the effect of satraplatin on two taxane-resistant cell lines, one that expresses mutant tubulin and another that overexpresses P-glycoprotein (Pgp). Findings showed that neither resistance mechanism conveyed resistance to satraplatin, thus supporting a lack of cross-resistance between satraplatin and the two approved taxanes.

• Intec Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Jerusalem, is raising NIS36 million (US$8 million) from local venture capital funds. The three-year-old firm announced completion of its first production line for a controlled-release, gastroretentive platform for drug delivery, at a cost of NIS8 million. Intec already raised $2 million from private investors. Intec Chairman Zvi Yosef said the funds would expand the company's infrastructure at its Jerusalem plant to standards in line with multinational pharmaceutical companies. The technology allows oral drugs to be taken at lower doses and longer intervals by extending absorption in the stomach and duodenum for up to eight hours, said Micah Friedman, a professor at the Hebrew University School of Pharmacy in Jerusalem. Friedman's research is the basis for the company.

• Intercell AG, of Vienna, Austria, and Aventis SA, of Strasbourg, France, signed a commercial license agreement for the development of bacterial vaccines. Intercell will apply its Antigen Identification Program to identify relevant antigens, which will allow Aventis' vaccines unit Aventis Pasteur to develop a next-generation protein-based vaccine. Intercell will receive up-front payments, license fees, research and development funding, milestone payments and royalties on product sales. Aventis Pasteur will receive exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize the vaccines developed.

• Lonza Group AG, of Basel, Switzerland, and Geneva-based NovImmune SA formed an agreement for the production and supply of clinical-grade monoclonal antibody drugs for marketing purposes. NovImmune develops therapeutic monoclonal antibodies based on its direct access to transgenic mouse technology and antibody display technology. The agreement provides Lonza with rights to manufacture NovImmune's products and those in-licensed through partners.

• Medical Marketing International plc, of Cambridge, UK, said it will be granted a U.S. patent on its ruthenium-based chemotherapy products. The compounds, which could form a new class of cancer therapy with equivalent efficacy and lower toxicity than platinum-based treatments, also have been granted a European patent.

• Merck KGaA, of Darmstadt, Germany, will receive about $1.7 billion for the sale of its laboratory distribution business, VWR International, to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc., a global private equity firm. Merck said the sale allows it to better focus on its core businesses of pharmaceuticals and chemicals, and will combine its analytics and reagents and life science products divisions into a new life science and analytics division, which will enter a long-term distribution agreement with West Chester, Pa.-based VWR. The agreement remains subject to regulatory approval.

• Pharmagene plc, of Royston, UK, disclosed three new discovery stage candidates, doubling the pipeline it has generated through its human tissue-based discovery platforms. The candidates are R65, a selective prostanoid receptor agonist for treating mymometrial disorders such as pre-term labor; R99, a small molecule for the treatment of immune disorders that acts via prostanoid receptors; and R93, a protein for treating heart failure. The company has filed six new patents. Pharmagene also has begun licensing discussions for two of its other programs, R1 for treating irritable bowel syndrome and R4, a migraine treatment.

• Pharmexa A/S, of H rsholm, Denmark, named Jakob Schmidt, previously chief financial officer, its new CEO, following the departure of S ren Mouritsen, the company's founder. Pharmexa also named its head of business development, Dana Leach, chief operating officer. Chrois Christensen, head of legal affairs, has succeeded Schmidt as CFO.

• Pharming Group NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, said the underwriters of its recent private placement exercised options to acquire 2.4 million new shares, priced at €1.40 per share, raising total gross proceeds to €29.3 million. Once the new shares issued and an associated debt-to-equity conversion are admitted for trading on the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam, Pharming will have 69.1 million shares outstanding.

• Prana Biotechnology Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, was awarded a government grant worth A$1.4 million (US$1.1 million) to take PBT-2, its second-generation Alzheimer's disease drug candidate, through safety testing and Phase I trials. More specifically, Prana will use the grant to fund ongoing toxicology testing and early human trials scheduled to begin late this year.

• Protherics plc, of Runcorn, UK, began a new clinical program to assess novel formulations of its Angiotensin vaccine for treating hypertension. The formulations, incorporating third-party adjuvants, have generated good antibody titers in preclinical models, and the company said it will complete Phase I trials by the end of 2004, progressing the formulation that produces the highest titers into a proof-of-concept study in hypertensive patients in 2005. In previous clinical trials in hypertensive patients, the Angiotensin vaccine was shown to modulate hormones involved in the control of blood pressure.

• Purely Proteins Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, and Abcam Ltd., also of Cambridge, reported a set of collaborative programs leading to the development of protein-antibody pairs that have relevance in pharmaceutical development and span the human proteome. The companies formed a collaboration that covers the focused production of families of therapeutically relevant proteins and protein domains together with their corresponding antibodies. Purely Proteins' TargetBASE database product is being used to provide information about known members of specific, therapeutically relevant protein families. Both companies will launch a number of Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase proteins.

• Science Foundation Ireland, which funds research on biotechnology and IT, said Madison, N.J., based Wyeth's Neuroscience Discovery Group would partner with a €7.7 million neuroscience research project led by University College Dublin. Wyeth will provide financial and technological support to the project, which aims to find new therapies for treating psychiatric and neurological diseases.

• Tissera Inc., of Tel Aviv, Israel, raised net proceeds of $1.6 million after completing a private equity placement with a group of individual and institutional investors. Tissera is developing tissue precursor regeneration technologies to address a variety of illnesses in which organ transplantation is necessary.

• Y's Therapeutics Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, raised 2.4 billion yen (US$22 million) through a Series B financing that included new and existing investors. The privately held company said it would use the proceeds to advance its product development pipeline, which includes antibody therapeutics and small-molecule products for oncology and autoimmune diseases. The financing was led by Softbank Investment Corp., with additional investments from Zenkoku Hosho Co. Ltd., Biovision Capital Corp. and unnamed venture capitalists.