• Abbott Laboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill., said it received about $3.3 million from Faulding Pharmaceutical Ltd., a subsidiary of Mayne Group Ltd. in Australia, which bought from Abbott shares of NaPro BioTherapeutics Inc., of Boulder, Colo. Abbott reported its liquidation in a filing with the SEC. In a July 22 filing, Abbott said it owned 2 million NaPro shares - a 6.7 percent stake. NaPro recently reported plans to sell its generic injectable paclitaxel business to Faulding for more than $71.7 million in cash. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 27, 2003.)

• Accelr8 Technology Corp., of Denver, said its shares would begin trading on the American Stock Exchange on or about Oct. 9 under the trading symbol "AXK." Its shares currently trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board as "ACLY." Accelr8 sells microarray slides and specialty microtiter plates coated with its OptiChem activated surface chemistry.

• Acorda Therapeutics Inc., of New York, gained exclusive, worldwide rights to Fampridine-SR for all indications after entering an expanded license agreement with Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland. The amended and restated agreement replaces two prior licenses to Fampridine-SR - one for multiple sclerosis (MS) as part of a now-dissolved joint venture between the companies, and one for spinal cord injury. Acorda is responsible for Fampridine-SR's clinical development, registration and potential commercialization. Elan will continue to be responsible for formulation development and manufacturing. If the product gets to market, Acorda would make milestone payments to Elan and pay royalties on net sales. Also, Elan would receive payments for supply based on net sales for the provision of commercial product. In related news, Acorda entered an agreement with Rush University Medical Center in Chicago for an exclusive, worldwide license to its know-how relating to fampridine for the treatment of MS, and the assignment of an orphan drug designation to Acorda for fampridine for the relief of symptoms of MS. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• AGY Therapeutics Inc., of South San Francisco, reported the publication of studies that identified a target, receptor tyrosine phosphatase zeta, or RPTP zeta, for the potential treatment of glioblastoma. The studies, which the company said provide further evidence of the power of AGY's functional genomics capabilities, are published in the latest edition of Oncogene. Comparative analysis of 14 individual glioblastoma tumor samples with normal brain tissue identified 200 genes that were up-regulated in tumor tissue. Detailed analysis of those genes identified RPTP zeta as a potential therapeutic target.

• Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said the underwriters of its recent public offering of 5 million common shares exercised their overallotment option to acquire an additional 750,000 shares of Angiotech at $43.75 per share, which will raise additional gross proceeds of $32.8 million. The completion of the offering, including exercise of the option, will result in the total sale of about 5.8 million common shares with gross proceeds of about $252 million. The proceeds are expected to be used to fund Angiotech's clinical studies, research and product development, working capital and general corporate purposes, including acquisitions. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 29, 2003.)

• Avocel Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., said findings published in Nature showing that RNAi can downregulate hepatitis C viral sequences in mice, as well as the inhibition of hepatitis B virus replication in mouse liver. Earlier this year, Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., provided the company an exclusive license to two patent applications for the use of delivered siRNA and expressed shRNA to induce RNA interference of target genes in mammals. Avocel retains exclusive rights for all commercial use of expressed shRNA, and co-exclusive rights for the use of delivered siRNA.

• BioReliance Corp., of Rockville, Md., launched a global sales and marketing organization, now offering its biologics testing and manufacturing services to clients. The reorganization follows BioReliance's acquisition of Q-One Biotech Group Ltd., of Glasgow, Scotland, and represents a major step in implementing the company's post-acquisition strategy, it said. The move integrates a sales and marketing function that had been segmented regionally.

• Biota Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, entered an agreement with Sankyo Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, covering Biota's second-generation influenza compounds (Flunet) and a comparable and competitive Sankyo compound, a long-acting neuraminidase inhibitor, called R118958, which already is in clinical trials. The companies will cross-license their relevant patents and pool their new long-acting influenza drugs into a single pipeline. They both expect all future development work on the compounds will be funded through licensing partners. The Biota compounds will not be developed immediately, but will be retained as back-up compounds, with the focus on accelerating the pathway to market for R118958. The agreement consummates a letter of intent executed in May. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Chiron Corp., of Emeryville, Calif., said its chairman, Sean Lance, would begin to sell 9,000 shares per day beginning Nov. 2 as part of a pre-arranged trading plan in accordance with the SEC to diversify his investment portfolio in anticipation of his announced retirement in May. The plan covers about 1.3 million shares, including 750,000 covered by options that must be exercised within 90 days of his retirement. The sale of all the shares would total about $70.1 million, based on Thursday's $53.93 closing bid on the stock.

• CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newtown, Pa., raised gross proceeds of $20 million after entering agreements to sell 2 million registered common shares to institutional investors at $10 apiece. The transaction netted $18 million for the company, which sells dental and dermatological products. The shares were offered pursuant to an effective shelf registration. Rodman & Renshaw Inc. and Jessup and Lamont served as the offering's placement agents.

• CV Therapeutics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., filed a mixed shelf registration statement with the SEC to sell, from time to time, up to $300 million worth of debt securities, preferred and common stock, and warrants. The company said it would use net proceeds from the sale of any securities for general corporate purposes, such as research and development, product manufacturing, clinical trials, new drug applications, commercialization, working capital, reducing debt, acquisitions or investments in complementary businesses, products or technologies and capital expenditures.

• Hycor Biomedical Inc., of San Diego, and Stratagene Corp., of La Jolla, Calif., reported the filing of a registration statement with the SEC in connection with the proposed merger of the companies, wherein Hycor will be merged into Stratagene with Hycor surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary in a stock transaction. Shareholders of Hycor will receive 0.6158 of a share of Stratagene for each share of Hycor. Each fractional share of Hycor remaining after the exchange will be paid in cash. The combined company will be called Stratagene Corp. and based in San Diego. Stratagene estimated that it will issue about 5 million shares to former holders of Hycor stock. The combined company will have about 21.9 million shares outstanding and is expected to trade on Nasdaq.

• ID Biomedical Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, withdrew its public offering of 5 million shares, citing market conditions. The company said its shares were at $19.05 when it filed its registration statement in late September. Since then, the company has seen "a significant decline in the biotechnology sector," and as a result ID said that offering shares "at a discount to our already reduced Oct. 2 closing price would simply be unacceptable." ID Biomedical focuses on subunit vaccine products. Its stock (NASDAQ:IDBE) rose 33 cents Friday to close at $16.75.

• Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of New York, said its investigational oral heparinoid compound, KRX-101 (sulodexide), would be studied by Jeffrey Kopp, a kidney disease researcher at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, a unit of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., in connection with the company's SOAR (sulodexide open access research) program. The proposed preclinical research is intended to establish a rationale for the use of KRX-101 in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a nondiabetic kidney disease characterized by glomerular scarring, with progressive loss of kidney function.

• Lark Technologies Inc., of Houston, said Nasdaq notified it that its trading symbol was changed to "LRKT" on Thursday as a result of the recent reverse/forward split. The former trading symbol was "LDNA." The company offers genomic services for use in pharmaceutical, diagnostic and agricultural product research and development.

• NitroMed Inc., of Bedford, Mass., set the price range for its initial public offering at $11 to $13 and its number of shares at 6 million. At that range, the offering would raise between $66 million and $78 million. The company's lead product BiDil remains in a pivotal trial for African-Americans diagnosed with heart failure. It filed for its IPO in late August. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 22, 2003.)

• OxiGene Inc., of Waltham, Mass., filed a mixed shelf registration statement with the SEC to sell, from time to time, up to $50 million worth of debt securities, common stock and warrants. The company, which develops compounds for aberrant blood vessels in solid tumor cancers and ocular neovascular diseases, said proceeds would provide additional financial support to expand its clinical programs and advance second-generation candidates into human trials. Its lead vascular targeting agent, Combretastatin A4 Prodrug, is in six clinical trials, while its next-generation compound, Oxi4503, is poised to enter the clinic next year.

• Pro-Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newton, Mass., raised $4.6 million in gross proceeds through a private placement of about 1.3 million common shares to institutional investors that also will receive five-year warrants for about 650,000 additional shares. The company, which is developing cancer therapeutics to target cancer cells through carbohydrate chemistry, said it would use the proceeds to fund ongoing operations. Rodman & Renshaw, of New York, acted as the transaction's placement agent.

• Ruston Poole International, of London, has released a report that focuses on nonexecutive directors and financial reporting council guidelines. The firm is a recruitment specialist for the health care, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

• Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc., of East Brunswick, N.J., said it is discussing its possible acquisition by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem. Savient said Teva, which confirmed the talks, has expressed an interest in paying $365.3 million in cash for all of Savient's outstanding shares at about $6.14 apiece, Thursday's closing bid on the stock. The companies said the discussions are at a preliminary stage, and any transaction is subject to completion of satisfactory due diligence, negotiation and completion of definitive documentation, and other customary conditions.

• The Cleveland Clinic, of Cleveland, received a $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to fund clinical studies of atherosclerotic disease of the lower extremity blood vessels. The grant was awarded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The clinic will use the grant to assess whether cholesterol-lowering agents can lead to plaque regression, a partial reversal of the atherosclerotic process. A study is planned that is expected to involve 275 patients with existing peripheral arterial disease.