• Acacia Research Corp., of Newport Beach, Calif., said its CombiMatrix group and Washington University in St. Louis are collaborating to develop a system for the synthesis of libraries of diverse, non-nucleic acid molecules. The libraries will be synthesized using CombiMatrix's semiconductor-based microarrays and electrochemical synthetic methods. CombiMatrix NanoArrays will be used for the diverse chemical synthesis.

• Acorda Therapeutics Inc., of Hawthorne, N.Y., withdrew its initial public offering almost four months after filing for a $75 million IPO. The company, which is developing therapies for treating central nervous system disorders, postponed its IPO a month ago as a result of market conditions. Several other biotech companies have postponed IPOs in recent months due to unfavorable market conditions. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 1, 2003.)

• Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., will redeem its 4.75 percent convertible subordinated notes due 2007. As previously reported, the company will fund the redemption with proceeds from its December sale of $120 million of 0.75 percent senior convertible notes due 2033 and from available cash. The date of redemption is Feb. 19, at which time each note will be redeemed for cash at about 101.6 percent of its principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest through Feb. 18. About $165 million remains outstanding.

• Ambion Inc., of Austin, Texas, entered an agreement with Applied Biosystems Group, of Foster City, Calif., to co-market exclusively Ambion's siRNA products and Applied Biosystems' real-time polymerase chain reaction reagents to offer a complete solution for performing and monitoring the gene knockdown effects of RNA interference in mammalian systems. Ambion will use Applied Biosystems' TagMan Assays-on-Demand Gene Expression products to validate their siRNA products. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Athenix Corp., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., raised $12.5 million in an oversubscribed round of Series B private equity financing. Intersouth Partners, of Durham, N.C.; Polaris Venture Partners, of Waltham, Mass.; and Boston Millenia Partners, of Boston, led the investment. Athenix is developing bioindustrial products for the agricultural and chemical businesses using genetic traits from microbes.

• Atrix Laboratories Inc., of Fort Collins, Colo., filed a shelf registration with the SEC that will allow the company to offer and sell up to $150 million of the company's common stock, preferred stock or debt securities from time to time. Atrix is focused on advanced drug delivery and has five patented technologies.

• Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc., of Needham, Mass., released positive preliminary results from the adult portion of the Phase II trial of Avant's cholera vaccine, CholeraGarde. More than 70 percent of the vaccinated adults participating in the trial responded with a favorable immune response. The study is designed to assess the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in adults (70 enrolled) prior to moving into the pediatric population.

• Biotique Systems, of Emeryville, Calif., said Berlex Biosciences Inc., of Richmond, Calif., subscribed to a three-year license to the Biotique Local Integration System that provides worldwide access to Berlin-based Schering AG's research operations. The agreement expands a previous agreement whereby Berlex, the U.S. affiliate of Schering, licensed the BLIS system for its research operations in Richmond. Financial terms were not released.

• Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc, of Cambridge, UK, and Lonza Group Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, reported the extension of their November 2001 agreement, confirming that Lonza Biologics will manufacture and supply clinical-grade antibody drugs to CAT through 2006. The agreement will guarantee that CAT and its collaborators have access to Lonza's manufacturing capability at production scale for both ongoing programs and future projects.

• Cellegy Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, entered a structured secondary offering facility agreement with Kingsbridge Capital Ltd., which will be required to purchase up to 3.74 million shares of newly issued common stock at times and in amounts selected by Cellegy over a period of up to two years, subject to certain restrictions. At Cellegy's current price, the agreement is valued at about $15 million. The purchase price will be at discounts ranging from 8 percent to 12 percent of the average market price prior to each future draw down. The lower discount applies to higher stock prices. Cellegy also issued warrants to Kingsbridge to purchase 260,000 shares at an exercise price of $5.27 apiece. Cellegy may begin to draw down funds after the effectiveness of a registration statement.

• Chiral Quest Inc., of State College, Pa., entered a partnership with Avantium Technologies, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to use Chiral Quest's array of chiral ligand catalysts in Avantium's high-throughput experimentation and simulation technology for the biopharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. Avantium provides rational high-throughput product and process R&D solutions to the chemicals and life science industries. Chiral Quest offers ligands for asymmetric catalytic reactions. Financial terms were not released.

• Chrysalis BioTechnology Inc., of Galveston, Texas, reported positive preclinical results from a study evaluating the potential uses of Chrysalin, its investigational drug for the repair and regeneration of dental bone. In a research model of maxillary sinus bone grafting, Chrysalin combined with a carrier bone-grafting material generated statistically significant greater amounts of new bone compared to the bone-grafting material alone (p<0.005).

• The Cleveland Clinic said a group of its researchers identified a gene locus that might explain why some people are more susceptible to premature coronary artery disease and heart attack than others, according to data to be published in next month's issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics. The gene locus was found on chromosome 1p34-36, and the LOD (logarithm of the odds score) of 11.7 indicates the chance that the locus would appear in the general population without premature heart disease is less than 1 in 10 million. Separately, the Cleveland Clinic said a company based on its technology called PrognostiX received a $6 million investment from ExOxEmis Inc., of Little Rock, Ark. The start-up was formed to develop, validate and commercialize diagnostic tests and personalized treatment for patients at risk for cardiovascular disease, asthma and other inflammatory diseases.

• Corgentech Inc., of South San Francisco, set the price range of its 5 million shares to be sold in an initial public offering at $14 to $16. The company, which is developing therapeutics by regulating gene expression, filed its IPO last month. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 8, 2003.)

• Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., reported that Les Laboratoires Servier extended its funding of the collaborative research agreement with Cortex. The initial research support deal began on Dec. 7, 2000, and expired on Dec. 6 last year. Cortex will receive about $4.3 million of support over the next two years. Thereafter, support will continue on an annual basis unless either company wishes to terminate the agreement. The support is in addition to Servier's eight quarterly payments of $500,000 that began on October 2002 to find an Ampakine compound that has specific anti-anxiety properties. The companies selected an Ampakine collaborative compound, S-40929, as a preclinical development candidate.

• CV Therapeutics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., said data published in the Jan. 21, 2004, issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association show that Ranexa (ranolazine) can reduce both angina frequency and nitroglycerin consumption when added to a standard dose of atenolol, amlodipine or diltiazem - three frequently prescribed antianginal drugs. The decrease in angina attacks vs. placebo were slightly less than one per week for those in the 750-mg group, and somewhat more than one per week for those in the 1,000-mg group. Exercise duration after 12 weeks of ranolazine therapy increased by 115.6 seconds at trough for those taking ranolazine, compared with 91.7 seconds for taking placebo. The findings stem from a two-year trial called CARISA (Combined Assessment of Ranolazine In Stable Angina), for which original data were reported late in 2001. The product remains under regulatory review. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 15, 2001, and Dec. 10, 2003.)

• CytRx Corp., of Los Angeles, said it will stop funding its existing investments in genomics companies in order to focus on its core strategy of developing human therapeutics for large-market indications. That will have no effect on CytRx's cash or working capital position, it said. CytRx's strategy is to become a fully integrated drug development firm using RNAi technology and DNA-based vaccines. In the past nine months, the company has invested in excess of $3.7 million in research focused on using RNAi technology to treat or cure Lou Gehrig's disease, Type II diabetes, obesity and cytomegalovirus.

• Dendreon Corp., of Seattle, intends to offer 8 million shares of common stock in an underwritten public offering under its existing shelf registration statement. Underwriters will have an option to purchase an additional 1.2 million shares to cover overallotments, if any. UBS Securities LLC, of New York, is acting as the sole book-running manager while Needham & Co. Inc., Piper Jaffray & Co. and Lazard Freres & Co. LLC are co-managers.

• Dynavax Technologies Corp., of Berkeley, Calif., set the number of shares to be sold in its initial public offering at 6 million. Its price range was set at $12 to $14. The company, which is developing products for treating and preventing allergies, infectious diseases, cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases, filed its IPO about three months ago. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 28, 2003.)

• Epimmune Inc., of San Diego, completed patient enrollment in a Phase I/II therapeutic HIV vaccine trial of its EP HIV-1090 vaccine candidate. The 10 patients in the fourth and final dose group have now received their initial vaccinations. The trial is being conducted at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center with sponsorship from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. While the primary objective is to determine the safety of the candidate, the secondary objective is to determine the immunogenicity of the vaccine or the level of the immune response as measured by the quantity and breadth of cytotoxic T cells generated.

• eXegenics Inc., of Dallas, received notification that its shares would remain listed on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market after receiving an extension until July 25 to come into compliance with a rule that requires a $1 minimum share price. During that period, it will be necessary for the company's stock to trade at or above that amount for a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days to remain listed.

• FemmePharma Inc., of Wayne, Pa., said its Phase II study of FP1096, an investigational treatment for endometriosis, demonstrated that the candidate reduced the painful symptoms of the illness with very minimal side effects. The 30-patient U.S. trial design was a multicenter, prospective and open-label study. The primary efficacy endpoint demonstrated a statistically significant decrease, indicating the trial participants had diminished symptoms that are associated with endometriosis. The secondary efficacy endpoints suggested that FP1096 reduced the pain associated with endometriosis.

• Galileo Genomics Inc., of Montreal, said that Investissement Quebec is providing a C$7 million (US$5.4 million) loan under its BioLevier program. Galileo will use the additional funds to accelerate the search for genes associated with more than 20 common and economically important diseases. The objective is the discovery of "GeneMaps," groups of common interacting genes that are involved in disease-causing biochemical processes. Galileo previously reported on Jan. 7 an equity financing of about $11.2 million.

• Generex Biotechnology Corp., of Toronto, and Unihart Biotech Pharma, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, entered an agreement to conduct a feasibility study for the development of a prototype drug delivery system using Generex's RapidMist Drug Delivery System in conjunction with Oroferone, a peroral natural interferon liquid formulation developed by Unihart. The formulation initially will be a proof-of-concept formulation that will require further development efforts to optimize bioavailability in a follow-on program should the companies decide to proceed.

• GenoMed Inc., of St. Louis, secured $900,000 in equity financing from Advanced Optics Electronics Inc., of Albuquerque, N.M. The financing is separate from the $500,000 financing secured by the company in October. Terms call for a capital investment in GenoMed of $900,000 in exchange for restricted common shares at a 25 percent discount to market. GenoMed's goal is to improve patient disease outcomes by identifying molecular pathways that cause disease.

• Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Baltimore, completed the expansion of its hospital sales force and has launched marketing efforts for Aggrastat injection (tirofiban hydrochloride) in the U.S. Guilford acquired U.S. marketing rights to Aggrastat injection from Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., in October. Guilford also said it intends to begin a Phase III trial during the second half of 2004 for use of Aggrastat in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in order to expand the product's labeled indication. Aggrastat is a glycoprotein GP IIb/IIIa receptor agonist, currently indicated for the treatment of acute coronary syndrome and non-Q-wave myocardial infarction.

• Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., of Philadelphia, began a clinical program for the treatment of West Nile virus in collaboration with New York Hospital, which is expected to begin a nationwide study and seek government funding. The program is designed to determine whether Alferon N Injection, a leukocyte-derived mixture of natural alpha interferons, is beneficial when administered to patients with, or at high risk of, acute meningoencephalitis caused by the virus. The trial is designed to determine Alferon N's safety and efficacy in improving neurologic outcome, with a primary outcome of measuring its effect on the change in neurologic function from drug administration, compared to placebo at three weeks and during long-term follow-up.

• IBFB Pharma GmbH, of Leipzig, Germany, raised €800,000 in additional private funding through two €400,000 investments, about a year after completing a second round of financing worth €10 million. The company is developing specific phosphodiesterase inhibitors for applications in allergy, asthma and autoimmune diseases. In addition, a matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor nonpeptide small-molecule library has been developed for evaluation for the treatment of cancer and arthritis.

• Large Scale Biology Corp., of Vacaville, Calif., said its plant-produced human therapeutic enzyme, alpha-galactosidase A, showed positive results in preclinical studies using an animal model of Fabry's disease. The results were published by researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md., and LSBC scientists. The studies demonstrated potential for using LSBC's plant-manufactured alpha-galactosidase in enzyme-replacement therapy for Fabry's disease and suggest further development of the product toward evaluation of its safety and efficacy in humans.

• Maxim Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, reported results of preclinical testing with MPC-6827, a new pro-apoptotic compound being developed by Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, under a license from Maxim. MPC-6827 is the lead compound within Maxim's MX128495 series of apoptosis-inducer compounds licensed last year. MPC-6827 was tested against pancreatic tumors in a xenograft mouse model to mimic the human form of the disease. All treated mice showed statistically significant inhibition of tumor growth.

• Medarex Inc., of Princeton, N.J., and Xerion Pharmaceuticals AG, of Munich, Germany, entered a collaborative agreement to develop fully human therapeutic antibody products. Terms of the agreement require Xerion to contribute disease-associated targets identified through its Xstream technology, while Medarex expects to generate fully human antibody product candidates against the targets using its UltiMAb Human Antibody Development System. The companies will share equally in the costs and responsibilities of resulting product development and intend to jointly commercialize any antibody products that come from the collaboration.

• Munich Biotech AG, of Neuried, Germany, began patient treatment in two Phase II trials of MBT-0206 for advanced metastatic breast cancer and metastatic pancreatic cancer. More than 40 sites will evaluate use of the anti-neovascular cancer agent in the two settings. Its antitumor efficacy will be tested in more than 50 breast cancer patients through administration of at least eight cycles over six months. Separately, 70 pancreatic cancer patients will be enrolled to evaluate the survival benefit of a treatment regimen that combines MBT-0206 with gemcitabine.

• Nastech Pharmaceutical Co. Inc., of Bothell, Wash., initiated a dosing study in 12 overweight adult subjects using its PYY3-36 nasal spray for obesity. The trial will assess appetite and food intake for the 24 hours following intranasal administration of PYY in male and female adults with a body mass index of 27-40 kg/m2. Pharmacokinetics, vital signs, nasal tolerance and safety also will be evaluated.

• Neurochem Inc., of Montreal, entered a licensing agreement with Praecis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Waltham, Mass., relating to certain beta-amyloid peptides for use in the development of a synthetic vaccine to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease. The company, which already has a clinical drug candidate called Alzhemed, said the deal expands its pool of intellectual property relating to specific A-beta-derived peptide sequences. At the same time, Neurochem entered an alliance with the National Research Council of Canada's Institute for Biological Sciences. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the company said it would retain all future commercial rights in therapies it develops under the agreements.

• Open Biosystems Inc., of Huntsville, Ala., released its Expression Arrest Zebrafish Morpholino Library, an antisense product for life science and genomics researchers who are deciphering the function of genes by using model organisms. The product provides them access to hundreds of zebrafish morpholinos designed and synthesized for immediate use.

• OxiGene Inc., of Waltham, Mass., completed the previously reported sale of $24.2 million of its common stock. OxiGene sold about 2.8 million shares to certain institutional investors at $8.78 per share. After fees and expenses, the company received about $22.3 million from the sale, which was conducted pursuant to OxiGene's shelf registration statement filed in October. OxiGene intends to use the proceeds of the financing to fund development of Combretastatin A4 Prodrug in oncology and ophthalmology. OxiGene is focused on the development of vascular-targeting agents, which are designed to selectively target and destroy new blood vessels. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 15, 2004.)

• QLT Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said it would temporarily offer physician customers a discount on Visudyne in response to a reduction in the Medicare reimbursement rate. It will be about a 4 percent discount, bringing the price to $1,295 down from the current price of $1,350. Medicare reform legislation, passed in late 2003, changed the rate of reimbursement for certain drugs, including Visudyne, which is used in the treatment of blindness linked to age-related macular degeneration. QLT and partner Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, filed a letter with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requesting an exception for Visudyne.

• Renovis Inc., of South San Francisco, set the price range of its shares to be sold in an initial public offering at $13 to $15. It plans to offer 5.5 million shares. The company, which is developing drugs for treating neurological diseases and disorders, filed its IPO three months ago. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 21, 2003.)

• Scolr Inc., of Bellevue, Wash., closed the sale of its probiotics development and manufacturing business for $2.7 million, completing Scolr's transition to a drug delivery company. Of that, $722,756 in cash was paid at the closing with deferred payments of at least $2 million. Payment of additional amounts is tied to the buyer's achievement of certain sales levels and royalties.

• Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, was cleared to begin clinical trials of a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome by Chinese regulatory authorities. Animal tests on safety, efficacy and immunogenicity have been completed successfully. Immune response was invoked by the vaccine in all animal models. No immune enhancement was observed in any of the preclinical testing. A Phase I trial in 30 humans is expected to begin soon. The researchers hope the vaccine will provoke the body's immune system into action so that it can destroy the SARS virus.

• Targeted Genetics Corp., of Seattle, was granted regulatory approval to begin its rheumatoid arthritis Phase I trial of tgAAC94 by the FDA and Health Canada. The company plans to begin dosing during the first quarter. The goal for tgAAC94 is to express TNF-receptor protein locally in arthritic joints that have not fully responded to systemically delivered therapy. It uses the company's adeno-associated vector technology platform to deliver the DNA sequence encoding an inhibitor of TNF-a, known as TNFR:Fc, to cells within arthritic joints.

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, said this month's issue of The Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome published final 48-week results from the NEAT trial, an open-label, multicenter study of Lexiva (fosamprenavir calcium). Formerly known as GW433908 (908), Lexiva was tested in antiretroviral therapy-naive HIV-positive patients vs. nelfinavir. Both protease inhibitors were administered in combination with abacavir and lamivudine. In the trial, 66 percent of 166 HIV-positive patients achieved a viral load of less than 400 copies/mL with Lexiva, compared to 51 percent of 83 patients taking nelfinavir. Lexiva was approved three months ago. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 22, 2003.)

• Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., said clinical trials of its cancer agent Triapine have been initiated under a collaboration with the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. The first trial to begin patient accrual is a Phase I study of the combination of Triapine and fludarabine for the treatment of relapsed and refractory hematologic malignancies. Other Phase I and II trials of Triapine as a single agent or in combination with other cancer agents are expected to begin in the next several months.

• Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, of Madison, N.J., said the European Commission approved Enbrel (etanercept) for the treatment of adults with severe active ankylosing spondylitis who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapy. The approval marks the fifth indication for Enbrel in the European Union, where it is approved for rheumatoid arthritis in adults with inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX), for rheumatoid arthritis in adults not previously treated with MTX, for adults with psoriatic arthritis and for children with juvenile chronic arthritis. Wyeth markets the drug outside the U.S., and it is co-promoted in the U.S. along with Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif.

• Xigen SA, of Lausanne, Switzerland, raised an undisclosed amount of funding after closing a private round of financing. The privately held company said it would use the proceeds for safety and toxicology testing of its lead compounds in neurodegenerative disorders, a field in which Xigen said they have demonstrated high efficacy in various preclinical disease models. Simultaneous with the financing, the company added two board members - Thomas Meyer and Alain Nicod.