• Advanced Viral Research Corp., of Yonkers, N.Y., said AVR118, its immunomodulator formerly known as Product R, exhibited therapeutic effects in both an animal model of inflammatory arthritis and a clinical trial of rheumatoid arthritis patients. The animal study, performed at the Weizmann Institute of Research in Rehovot, Israel, showed that the administration of AVR118 significantly suppressed the development of inflammation in the animals' joints, compared to non-treated control animals. The results were validated by a 27-patient, open-label trial in Argentina in which all participants had resolution or a significant decrease in pain intensity; improvements in exercise, housework and social activities; as well as objective signs of decreased inflammation and increased mobility of affected joints.

• Advancis Pharmaceutical Corp., of Germantown, Md., moved its headquarters and research facility into a new building five miles from its original site. The company, which recently raised $60 million after completing its initial public offering, said the 62,000 square feet of office and research space in the new facility would support plans to expand from 70 employees to more than 150 employees.

• Agilent Technologies Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., entered an agreement to license the ChemIQ and ChemXtra technologies from IDBS, of Guilford, UK, to provide chemical intelligence for the Agilent Synapsia Informatics Workbench, a suite of software tools designed to help scientists synthesize and share research. The integration is designed to enable the product to bridge the data domains of biology and chemistry.

• AltaRex Corp., of Edmonton, Alberta, entered an agreement with Nova Bancorp Investments Ltd. to recapitalize and reorganize its business in transforming into an oil and gas exploration and production company. AltaRex's existing assets and liabilities will be transferred to a subsidiary, which eventually plans to seek a public listing. AltaRex had been developing antibodies for cancer and other diseases.

• Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., raised $9.4 million in gross proceeds after entering definitive agreements for a direct equity placement with existing and new unaffiliated institutional investors to purchase about 1.18 million common shares at $8 apiece. The per-share price represents the average closing bid on the stock for the prior five trading days ending Monday. The shares were sold through a prospectus supplement pursuant to the company's effective shelf registration statement.

• Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc., of Needham, Mass., said Phase III studies are under way to evaluate Rotarix, a product directed against rotavirus infection, according to its development partner GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London. Avant said the program would enroll up to 60,000 infants in Latin America and Southeast Asia, with results eventually expected to support registration in Europe and other international markets.

• Barr Laboratories Inc., of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., signed a $35 million asset purchase agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Endeavor Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Wilmington, N.C. Barr will acquire the new drug application and intellectual property related to Endeavor's Enjuvia synthetic conjugated estrogens product, and two early stage female health care products.

• BioGentech Corp., of Irvine, Calif., completed a $1.6 million financing with Gryphon Master Fund LP, of Dallas. BioGentech also secured an additional $1 million from a private trust and $540,000 from a private investment banker. The funds will be used for general corporate purposes, including acquiring products to supplement the internal product pipeline at BioGentech, a pharmaceutical and consumer products company.

• BioLife Solutions Inc., of Binghamton, N.Y., raised about $1.4 million through the private placement of units consisting of Series G convertible preferred stock and warrants, and was awarded a $177,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The company said it would use the equity funding for working capital purposes and to repay debt, while it plans to use the grant funding to further develop its Hypothermosol and CryoStor product technologies for cell and gene therapies and tissue engineering.

• Cytogen Corp., of Princeton, N.J., said clinical data reported at this week's Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago showed that the uptake of its ProstaScint molecular imaging agent (capromab pendetide) can indicate metastatic disease. One investigator concluded that the pattern of multifocal ProstaScint uptake in the central abdominal region indicates a poor prognosis, a finding culled from a 341-patient study in which results showed that patients having the ProstaScint scan finding were 2.8 times more likely to have died during the four-year follow-up period than those without.

• DNAPrint genomics, of Sarasota, Fla., said it would raise up to $8 million after securing a two-year commitment from La Jolla Cove Investors Inc. The transaction involves a debenture convertible into common stock and warrants to purchase common stock, resulting in a commitment of $400,000 per month over a 20-month period. The purchase price is based on the trading price of the company's stock, and the funding will begin after the company registers the stock to be issued in the transaction. DNAPrint genomics' founders have experience in mathematical modeling, programming and molecular genetics.

• DuPont Co., of Wilmington, Del., said a team of its scientists published findings in the current issue of Science pointing to a method of advancing electronic applications through the use of DNA that sorts carbon nanotubes. Along with collaborators from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology and the University of Illinois, the researchers separated and sorted carbon nanotube-DNA hybrids using anion exchange chromatography, a technique that can be used to separate metallic carbon nanotubes from semiconducting carbon nanotubes, and can sort semiconducting carbon nanotubes by diameters.

• Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Houston, said it plans to publicly offer 5.75 million common shares pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement previously filed with the SEC. The company also intends to grant the underwriters an overallotment option to purchase up to 862,500 additional common shares. Encysive is developing small-molecule drugs.

• Ergo Science Corp., of Boston, named Charles Finelli its interim president, CEO and secretary following the resignation of David Burt, who also was the company's chairman. Finelli also serves as a director on the board, which added Nadim Nsouli to fill the vacancy created by the resignation.

• GeneLink Inc., of Margate, N.J., settled a lawsuit it filed against LAB21 Inc., of New York, for an undisclosed amount. GeneLink had brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, which initially issued a preliminary injunction enjoining LAB21 from using any confidential information it learned from GeneLink during a collaborative effort to test market a DNA face cream based on GeneLink's SNP profiling methodology.

• ID Biomedical Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said it received about $4.5 million in additional funding from Dynport Vaccine Co. LLC, of Frederick, Md., related to the development of a second-generation, subunit plague vaccine. The additional contract and amendments to the first contract will provide ID funds for further process development and manufacturing activities related to producing a subunit recombinant plague antigen. With the new contract, Dynport's funding commitment to ID Biomedical has grown to $10.6 million.

• ILEX Oncology, of San Antonio, began a Phase I trial to evaluate oral clofarabine's safety and tolerability in advanced or metastatic solid tumor patients who have failed standard therapy or for whom no standard therapy exists. In addition, the trial will evaluate preliminary evidence of clofarabine's antitumor activity. The open-label, single-arm, dose-escalating study will enroll about 25 patients. Clofarabine is a next-generation purine nucleoside antimetabolite for which ILEX obtained U.S. and Canadian development rights from Bioenvision Inc., of New York, which maintains rights outside those areas.

• Immtech International Inc., of Vernon Hills, Ill., the Medicines for Malaria Venture in Geneva and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill signed a partnership agreement to develop a malaria drug candidate called DB289. Immtech will carry out all clinical development work, which will be conducted in Africa, Asia and South America, and will be funded by the Medicines for Malaria Venture. The university will provide research support.

• Immunomedics Inc., of Morris Plains, N.J., said it plans to begin a Phase III trial in the next year to evaluate epratuzumab (IMMU-103) for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Last month, news surrounding an end to the drug's development in partnership with Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., caused Immunomedics' stock to lose more than half its value in a single day. Eight months earlier, the companies halted a Phase III trial of the drug as a monotherapy. The deal had a potential worth of about $308 million for Immunomedics, which said it remains in confidential discussions with Amgen and added that it plans to continue a Phase I trial of epratuzumab in autoimmune disease patients. Its stock (NASDAQ:IMMU) gained 69 cents Wednesday, or 16.8 percent, to close at $4.79. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 12, 2003.)

• Inhibitex Inc., of Atlanta, said preclinical data published in this month's issue of Infection and Immunity demonstrated that a single administration of mAb 12-9 significantly reduced Staphylococcus aureus-mediated, sepsis-induced mortality in an in vivo model. The murine monoclonal antibody specifically binds to clumping factor A (ClfA), a surface protein found on almost all strains of S. aureus, including those that are antibiotic resistant. Inhibitex expects to begin a Phase II trial of its investigational drug Aurexis, the humanized version of mAb 12-9, early next year.

• Insmed Inc., of Richmond, Va., said data reported at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium showed that researchers found an increased level of insulin-like growth factor receptor in breast carcinoma cells resistant to Herceptin (trastuzumab, from Genentech Inc.). But treatment with the company's anticancer compound, recombinant human insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (rhIGFBP-3), caused dose-dependent inhibition of Herceptin-resistant breast carcinoma growth, while the product combined with Herceptin caused a dose-dependent increase in sensitivity of breast carcinoma cells to Herceptin.

• Isolagen Inc., of Houston, said positive preliminary results from a study at the University of Texas Health Science Center Dental Branch showed that patients treated with the company's autologous cellular treatment had significant improvements in the two areas of treatment - the deep pocket areas and the gingival recession areas. A benefit of up to 4 mm was seen is some of the deep pocket areas.

• Isotechnika Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, added a third drug candidate to its immunosuppressive drug pipeline, TKB662, which is designed to address chronic rejection and side effects resulting from steroid use that hamper transplantation. Preclinical studies have demonstrated inhibition of T-cell and B-cell activation and proliferation through multiple mechanisms of action including the inhibition of lymphocyte phosphorylation activity, the company said.

• Lipid Sciences Inc., of Pleasanton, Calif., began a series of non-human primate studies to further validate its delipidation technology after recently completing studies in a mouse model. The studies' goal is to develop a therapeutic vaccine approach for use against HIV.

• Maas BiolAB LLC, of Albuquerque, N.M., and NeuroPharma AB, of Lund, Sweden, reported findings at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans showing that brain mitochondria are specifically and powerfully protected by cyclosporins, through the cyclosporins' ability to block the formation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, or megapore. Blocking the mitochondrial megapore prevents the release of mitochondrial apoptosis factors that activate caspases and turn on neuron suicide genes.

• Molecular Engines Laboratories SA, of Paris, said findings published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show that TCTP, a protein involved in tumor reversion and suppression, interacts with eEF1A and eEF1B beta, two proteins involved in the elongation phase of translation. The data suggest that TCTP might play an important decision-making role in protein synthesis.

• MorphoSys AG, of Munich, Germany, and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, reported in vivo Alzheimer's disease data at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans showing that systemically administered antibodies showed highly specific binding to amyloid plaques in the brains of transgenic mice. Also, the MorphoSys-generated antibodies, which it created using its human HuCAL antibody technology, were highly specific to human amyloid plaques in vitro.

• Pharmos Corp., of Iselin, N.J., said it expects to offer an undisclosed number of common shares to the public, subject to market and other conditions. The offering is being made from an effective shelf registration statement filed by Pharmos last month with the SEC. Pharmos is developing drugs to treat a range of neuroinflammatory disorders.

• PRB Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., plans to study its investigational antiviral product Vira-380 among Hong Kong influenza sufferers. The company said prior open-label clinical testing has shown that Vira-380 reduced flu severity by 42 percent within the first 24 hours of treatment, and the average illness duration was 2.1 days. PRB also said in vitro data showed that two of Vira-380's antiviral fractions are effective in inhibiting the coronavirus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome. The company named SARS researcher John Tam to its scientific board.

• Protiveris Inc., of Rockville, Md., entered an agreement with UT-Battelle LLC, a partnership between the University of Tennessee and Battelle, to acquire worldwide commercial rights to sensor technologies developed by scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Protiveris, a bio-nanotechnology company commercializing bioMEMS technologies to facilitate protein research and the discovery of new pharmaceuticals, plans to apply the sensor technologies to microcantilever measurements of biomolecular interactions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Provectus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Knoxville, Tenn., said it completed an unsecured financing worth $500,000, a figure that would grow to $1.1 million after all warrants have been converted. The company said the funding would allow it to advance development of its drug therapies for breast, liver and prostate cancers, as well as psoriasis.

• RxGen Inc., of Hamden, Conn., said preclinical data to be published in Developmental Brain Research demonstrated that its scientists have identified and confirmed dynamic clusters of gene expression associated with the development of four major regions of the primate brain. Investigators said the findings point to the regional specificity of a large number of genes as a function of brain development, providing new insight and understanding of brain development that potentially could lead to new strategies for treating and repairing disorders of brain function.

• Semorex Inc., of North Brunswick, N.J., said findings reported at the Materials Research Society meeting in Boston showed that its molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have the potential to become a new category of gastrointestinal drugs. The company is pursuing development of its MIPs as a new class of polymer-based drugs for removal of toxic bile acids in the gastrointestinal tract.

• Sepracor Inc., of Marlborough, Mass., said it would incur a one-time, non-cash charge of about $19 million after deciding to discontinue clinical development of Soltara-brand tecastemizole for allergic rhinitis. The charge represents the carrying value of all patent and intangible assets associated with tecastemizole. In March 2002, the FDA issued a not approvable letter in response to Sepracor's new drug application for Soltara.

• The Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Ala., said it was awarded a five-year, $13.5 million contract from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a unit of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to test five compounds for the National Toxicology Program. The compounds include one potential chemopreventive agent and four industrial chemicals, and will be tested to determine toxicity from both short-term and chronic exposure.

• Targacept Inc., of Winston-Salem, N.C., and collaborators from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta published research results in the Journal of Neuroscience identifying a key enzyme implicated in cell death, findings they said could have therapeutic applications in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The collaborators previously identified a cellular pathway triggered by activation of the alpha-7 neuronal nicotinic receptor that protects against the negative effects of beta-amyloid, and this recent development demonstrates that activation of the enzyme SHP-1 blocks that pathway. Together, the researchers said the discoveries provide insight into the mechanisms of cell death.

• Tm Bioscience Corp., of Toronto, received a $7.3 million investment from Technology Partnerships Canada, a special operating agency of Industry Canada, which will support Tm Bioscience's $25 million research and development project to develop several genetic tests. The new genetic tests are designed to improve health care efficiency by allowing Canadian researchers to explore the linkages between disease, genetic mutations and treatment. Tm Bioscience will pay TPC a royalty on its revenue and, subject to regulatory approval, will issue TPC $2.5 million worth of five-year common share purchase warrants on Dec. 31, 2005, with an exercise price equal to the current value of the common shares at that date.

• ZymoGenetics Inc., of Seattle, said it would begin clinical trials of recombinant human thrombin for the control of bleeding associated with surgical procedures. The company expects to begin treating patients for the dose-escalation portion of a Phase I/II spinal surgery enrollment by the end of this year.