• Abmaxis Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., said that Shirley Liu Clayton was named CEO. Clayton most recently was chief financial officer of Cbyon, a medical imaging company. Previously, she was president, chief financial officer and co-founder of Raven Biotechnologies Inc. Abmaxis' technology is designed to allow for the discovery and development of human therapeutic antibodies through molecular design and selection in order to improve their efficacy.

• Accelrys Inc., of San Diego, reported the Linux releases of Insight II and Catalyst, its software suites for macromolecular modeling and rational drug design. Insight II and Catalyst software now runs on Linux workstations. Completed in collaboration with IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., both suites are available to both clients and servers with certification on the latest IBM IntelliStation workstations running Red Hat Linux, the company said.

• Acuity Pharmaceuticals, of Philadelphia, raised $2.4 million in its first institutional round. The company now has raised a total of $3.7 million. The first round includes investments from BioAdvance and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania. The majority of the company's current shareholders also participated in the round. Acuity is developing small interfering RNA therapeutics and treatments for diseases of the eye and retina

• AGY Therapeutics Inc., of South San Francisco, said studies have identified the protein cathepsin B as having a crucial role in mediating inflammation-induced nerve cell death, a condition associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. The studies were featured in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and showed that inhibition of cathepsin B significantly decreased the toxic effect on primary neurons.

• Antares Pharma Inc., of Exton, Pa., completed an about $9.6 million private placement of its common stock at a price of $1 per share. The company also issued to the purchasers five-year warrants to purchase, at an exercise price of $1.25 per share, an aggregate number of shares of common stock equal to 33 percent of the total number of shares of common stock sold. The company also reported that it is in discussions with other institutional investors interested in participating in the financing round. Antares said those investors might purchase between $2 million and $4 million in a follow-on closing expected to occur within the next two weeks.

• Aphton Corp., of Miami, plans to publicly offer 7 million shares of its common stock pursuant to a shelf registration statement filed with the SEC. The company intends to grant underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1.05 million shares to cover overallotments. UBS Securities LLC is lead underwriter for the offering, which includes Harris Nesbitt Gerard as co-manager. Aphton is developing products using its targeted immunotherapy technology for neutralizing hormones that participate in gastrointestinal system and reproductive system cancer and noncancer diseases.

• BioAdvance, of Philadelphia, selected eight recipients to receive a total of $3.3 million in seed and pre-seed funding from its second investment cycle. BioAdvance is known as the biotechnology greenhouse of southeastern Pennsylvania, which aims to help entrepreneurs move potential products to a more advanced stage where they can secure venture capital and corporate funding.

• ChemBridge Research Laboratories LLC, of San Diego, and Merck KgaA, of Darmstadt, Germany, accomplished their first collaboration project. In August, ChemBridge entered a contract research agreement to provide its discovery research capabilities to Merck. ChemBridge scientists synthesized multiple series of focused libraries under application of its high-throughput medicinal chemistry platform to complement Merck's in-house finding efforts. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Columbia Laboratories Inc., of Livingston, N.J., said its application to list its common stock on the Nasdaq National Market was approved. The company said it anticipates that its stock will begin trading Friday under the symbol "CBRX." Its stock is expected to continue trading on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol "COB" through Thursday. Columbia Laboratories is focused on research and development of women's health care and endocrinology products.

• Epoch Biosciences Inc., of Bothell, Wash., entered a worldwide nonexclusive license with Celera Diagnostics, of Alameda, Calif., a joint venture between the Celera Genomics Group and Applied Biosystems Group, for incorporation of its MGB technology and Eclipse Dark Quencher technology into Celera Diagnostics' products for selected infectious diseases. The license allows Celera Diagnostics to manufacture, sell and distribute TagMan probes that use Epoch's minor groove binder and quencher in selected products. Epoch will receive license fees and royalties on sales of such licensed product to end-users. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Forbes Medi-Tech Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, filed a registration statement with the SEC to register for resale the common shares issuable upon conversion of about 5.4 million Series A convertible preferred shares issued Jan. 6 pursuant to the company's $10.75 million private placement. The registration statement also registers for resale the common shares underlying all warrants issued in connection with the placement. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 8, 2004.)

• Imcor Pharmaceutical Co., of San Diego, said its stockholders approved the issuance of more than 20 percent of the company's voting stock to certain creditors of Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., of San Diego, in connection with Imcor's acquisition of Alliance's imaging and diagnostic imaging assets. The company acquired the assets from Alliance last June. Stockholders also approved the issuance of additional shares of common stock upon the conversion of about $4.2 million in secured promissory notes, and it changed the company's name to Imcor, which formerly was called Photogen Technologies Inc. The company's new symbol on the Nasdaq National Market is "ICPHC."

• InterMune Inc., of Brisbane, Calif., plans to offer a new issue of $150 million in convertible senior notes due 2011 to qualified institutional buyers. The notes would be convertible into InterMune common stock at a price to be determined. The company also plans to grant purchasers an option for an additional $20 million in notes. InterMune would use proceeds to purchase or redeem the company's outstanding convertible notes, or for working capital and other corporate purposes.

• Lorus Therapeutics Inc., of Toronto, initiated a clinical trial of GTI-2040 in combination with gemcitabine in patients with solid tumors. The study is part of a larger program sponsored by the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., in collaboration with Lorus. It is being conducted at the Institute for Drug Development, Cancer Therapy and Research Center in San Antonio. The study will determine the recommended dose and it will evaluate the plasma pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of each drug, as well as examine cellular biomarkers that might correlate with clinical outcomes.

• Microbiotix Inc., of Worcester, Mass., said in December it in-licensed two early stage, anti-infective discovery programs from Genome Therapeutics Corp., of Waltham, Mass. The research covers bacterial biofilm drug development and drug discovery for therapeutics for B. pseudomallei and related pathogens. Microbiotix assumes all responsibility for the continued execution of the programs. It receives from Genome Therapeutics certain technology, personnel and equipment. Genome Therapeutics will receive licensing fees and future royalties on any sales of products developed. It also retains certain development and marketing rights. The programs are funded in part by Small Business Innovation Research grants from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

• Nanogen Inc., of San Diego, will acquire Syn-X Pharma Inc., of Toronto, a point-of-care diagnostics company, with the signing of a definitive agreement for an all-stock transaction valued at about C$16.3 million (US$12.3 million). The acquisition will provide Nanogen with a pipeline of complementary products to expand its market share in the in vitro diagnostics market and augments its technology platform for developing advanced diagnostic products, the company said. Syn-X will operate as a unit of Nanogen and Nanogen expects the unit to be cash flow positive by the end of 2005. The merger is subject to Syn-X shareholder approval and other closing conditions.

• NeoGenomics Inc., of Naples, Fla., opened a new 5,200-square-foot laboratory facility in Fort Myers, Fla. The new facility allows the company to increase its output and to extend its current product line into new areas, such as perinatology testing and flow cytometry testing.

• Orchid BioSciences Inc., of Princeton, N.J., said all of its outstanding convertible preferred stock has been converted into common stock. The company now has about 94.7 million common shares outstanding. Orchid provides identity genomics services for the forensic and paternity DNA testing markets and for public health DNA testing for food safety.

• Seattle Genetics Inc., of Bothell, Wash., completed its public offering of 7 million shares of common stock. In addition, the underwriters of the public offering exercised their overallotment option in full and purchased an additional about 1.1 million shares of stock. Total gross proceeds from the offering are about $66.4 million. Seattle Genetics is focused on the development of monoclonal antibody-based therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer and immunologic diseases. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 6, 2004.)

• Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Marietta, Ga., received FDA approval of EstroGel (estradiol gel), the first estrogen therapy transdermal gel in the U.S. to treat moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms, as well as vulvar and vaginal atrophy associated with menopause. EstroGel provides for delivery of estradiol for estrogen replacement in a non-patch transdermal form.

• Symbollon Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Framingham, Mass., said it intends to initiate a Phase III pivotal trial of IoGen tablets to treat fibrocystic breast disease. It will begin enrolling patients in the spring. Symbollon is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of proprietary drugs based on its molecular iodine technology. Symbollon already has completed Phase I and II trials evaluating IoGen as a treatment for moderate to severe cyclic pain and tenderness associated with fibrocystic breast disease.

• Targeted Genetics Corp., of Seattle, said Phase II data of tgAAVCF in cystic fibrosis patients showed statistically significant improvements in lung function, as well as a clean safety profile. The trial included 37 patients with mild cystic fibrosis. TgAAVCF used an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver functional copies of the CFTR gene directly into the lungs. The company published the results in the Feb. 9, 2004, issue of Chest.

• Third Wave Technologies Inc., of Madison, Wis., released its Invader CYP450 2D6 analysis panel, providing clinical trial laboratories with access to what is designed to be the broadest range of pharmacogenetic assays available for the 2D6 gene, the company said. The panel provides access to a variety of genetic changes in the 2D6 gene that affect individual drug response, including single nucleotide polymorphisms, single and multiple base-pair deletions and whole-gene deletion and duplication.

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said five holders of its 5 percent convertible subordinated notes due 2007 will exchange about $153.5 million in those notes for an equal value in new 5.75 percent convertible notes due 2011. The original notes were issued through a private offering to institutional buyers. The exchange is expected to happen on Friday. The senior subordinated notes are convertible into Vertex stock at $14.94 per share. Vertex's stock (NASDAQ:VRTX) rose 2 cents Tuesday to close at $10.17.