• A.P. Pharma Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., began a Phase II study of APF112 for pain following inguinal hernia procedures. The company also said its early 2004 plans include filing an investigational new drug application for a follow-on product in a surgical/orthopedic indication.

• Agilent Technologies Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., in collaboration with Japan's National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, released the Agilent Rice Oligo Microarray Kit, a 60-mer oligonucleotide microarray for the study of rice. It includes genetic probes for more than 21,000 genes from the genome of a strain of rice mainly cultivated in Japan, and is believed to be about half of that complete rice genome.

• Atrix Laboratories Inc., of Fort Collins, Colo., said that its licensee Sanofi-Synthelabo Canada, a division of Sanofi-Synthelabo SA, of Paris, received notice of compliance from the Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada for Eligard 7.5 mg and 22.5 mg (leuprolide acetate for injection), one- and three-month sustained-release prostate cancer products. The notice permits those products to be sold in Canada. Sanofi-Synthelabo Canada will be responsible for marketing the products in that country.

• Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., of Hercules, Calif., said its BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease) test, which is used in Japan's national BSE screening program, identified the country's second diseased cow under the age of 24 months. Bio-Rad's test was sensitive enough to detect the low level of abnormal prions found in tissue samples from the 21-month-old cow. The same test also detected Japan's 23-month-old positive case in early October, the company said.

• Hemosol Inc., of Toronto, reported that Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon Ltd., and Vengate Capital Partners Co. will act as agents to sell on a best-efforts basis up to 11.5 million units of Hemosol at a price of C75 cents (US57 cents) per unit to raise C$8.62 million. Each unit will consist of one share and one-half of one warrant, with each whole warrant enabling the holder to buy one share for C90 cents at any time for 36 months following the closing of the transaction, unless the volume-weighted average share price of Hemosol's shares exceeds 300 percent of the offering price per unit for 20 consecutive trading days, in which case the warrants must be exercised within 30 days of the date of notice by Hemosol. If the offering is fully subscribed, $4.35 million of the proceeds will be paid to Hemosol on closing. The C$4.27 million proceeds representing the remaining 5.7 million units will be held in escrow and ultimately released according to a specific plan, beginning with proceeds of C$1.05 million being released after Nasdaq allows Hemosol to increase the offering size from below 20 percent to 25 percent of its outstanding shares.

• Lorus Therapeutics Inc., of Toronto, reported the further global expansion of the compassionate use program for Virulizin, its Phase III drug for pancreatic cancer. The program now includes 10 countries, with more than 60 patients having received Viruzilin for advanced pancreatic cancer in the past year. Compassionate use data is being collected by Lorus and will be included as part of the safety and use database for regulatory filings.

• Maxim Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, filed for European approval of Ceplene (histamine dihydrochloride), in combination with interleukin-2, for advanced malignant melanoma. Clinical results supporting the application include multiple Phase II and III trials demonstrating the potential of Ceplene to improve the survival of advanced malignant melanoma patients. About six weeks ago, the company raised $25.5 million to further its U.S. Phase III program for Ceplene, in which the drug is being evaluated in both malignant melanoma and acute myeloid leukemia. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 24, 2003.)

• Myogen Inc., of Denver, received net proceeds of about $9.8 million after the underwriters of its 5 million-share initial public offering fully exercised their 750,000-share overallotment option. The cardiovascular drug development company raised $70 million in gross proceeds from its IPO last month. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 31, 2003.)

• StemCells Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., reported positive preclinical results at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans, pointing to the ability of its human neural stem cells (hCNS-SC) to regenerate myelin, a nerve fiber insulator that often is lost or damaged in spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis and certain genetic disorders. Findings showed extensive myelination of nerve axons in a shiverer mouse that cannot produce myelin because it lacks a functional copy of the basic myelin protein gene. StemCells' hCNS-SC, when transplanted into the mouse, generated human oligodendrocytes that functionally integrated into the brain and produced myelin, resulting in insulation of the mouse nerve axons. The company's stock (NASDAQ:STEM) gained 64 cents Friday, or 36.2 percent, to close at $2.41.

• Transkaryotic Therapies Inc., of Los Angeles, reported long-term data from its Phase I/II study with its enzyme replacement therapy, iduronate-2-sulfatase (I2S) for the treatment of Hunter syndrome. The study involved 12 patients with Hunter syndrome in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Results showed that urinary glycosaminoglycan excretion was reduced by 45 percent from baseline after one year of I2S treatment. Liver and spleen volumes also were reduced by 27 percent and 26 percent, respectively, after one year of therapy from baseline. Respiratory capacity, as measured by forced vital capacity, remained stable; and improvements in the 6-minute walk test also were observed after one year of treatment.