• Abbott Laboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill., submitted a supplemental biologics license application to the FDA seeking approval for Humira to improve physical function in patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis. The product was approved in December 2002 for reducing the signs and symptoms and inhibiting the progression of structural damage in adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who had insufficient response to one or more traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Other clinical trials under way are evaluating its potential in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn's disease and early rheumatoid arthritis.

• Aclara BioSciences Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., entered a service and supply agreement with the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science (TMIMS) - commonly called Rinshoken in Japan - to provide access to Aclara's eTag Assay System. TMIMS will use the system for high-throughput, multiplex biological assays in the area of hypoxia-inducible factors in cells and tissues. Also, the agreement includes access reagent products, software and support.

• AltaRex Corp., of Edmonton, Alberta, plans to conduct a private placement of up to 4 million units at C34 cents each, resulting in gross proceeds of C$1.4 million (US$1 million). Acumen Capital Finance Partners Ltd., of Calgary, Alberta, will act as placement agent and might increase the issue by an additional 2 million units for up to another C$680,000 in proceeds. Each unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant that entitles the holder to acquire one AltaRex common share upon payment of 50 cents per share for a 12-month period following the closing date, expected to be Oct. 16.

• Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, closed its public offering of 5 million common shares at $43.75 per share. Gross proceeds are C$295.05 million (US$218.75 million). Underwriters include New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers, as well as Vancouver-based BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and Credit Suisse First Boston Canada Inc., a unit of New York-based Credit Suisse First Boston LLC. The underwriters have an overallotment option for 750,000 common shares.

• Antigenics Inc., of New York, said immunological results from Phase II trials evaluating the company's personalized cancer vaccine, Oncophage, for the treatment of both advanced melanoma and colorectal cancer, were published in the Journal of Immunology published Oct. 1, 2003. In the analysis, researchers observed a significant cancer-specific immune response among patients receiving Oncophage; they determined the immunological mechanism of action is the same for both melanoma and colorectal cancer.

• Arrow Therapeutics Ltd., of London, raised more than £21 million (US$35 million) in the first close of its Series B funding round. The second stage, expected to close by the end of this year, is expected to increase the round's total funding to £25 million. The investment will fund operations, research and development, and marketing efforts at the anti-infectives drug discovery company, which was founded in 1998. A new investor, Atlas Venture, led the round, which also included other new investments from NIF, ITX and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. Previous investors GIMV, Alta Partners, 3i Group, TVM, Unibio and NVM also contributed. Atlas' Tim Wilson and TVM's Alexandra Goll joined Arrow's board.

• BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lincolnshire, Ill., said its common stock began trading on the American Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "BPA." BioSante, which is developing hormone therapy products for men and women, will be represented by Cohen Specialists LLC on the AMEX trading floor.

• British Biotech plc, of London, changed its name to Vernalis plc following approval at its annual general meeting. Its shares will continue to trade on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker "BBG" and its American Depository Shares will trade on the Nasdaq National Market under "BBIOY" until or about Oct. 22. Vernalis Group will continue to trade as "VER" until the cancellation of its listing on the LSE becomes effective on or about that date, after which the post-merger company will adopt the symbol "VER" on the LSE and "VNLS" for its ADSs.

• CalbaTech Inc., of Irvine, Calif., executed an agreement to acquire Molecula Research Laboratories LLC, of Herndon, Va., a leading company in gene silencing technologies for gene and protein function studies. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

• Cardinal Health Inc., of Dublin, Ohio, said it agreed to pay $15.5 million in cash to acquire the remaining 42 percent of Gala Biotech, of Middleton, Wis., as part of its strategy to grow its drug development services. Last September, the companies entered a relationship to leverage the start-up company's gene-insertion technology for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies. Since the relationship began, Cardinal has invested $12 million to expand Gala's operations and accelerate its business development efforts.

• Corgentech Inc., of South San Francisco, completed patient enrollment in a second pivotal Phase III trial to evaluate CGT003, an E2F Decoy treatment for the prevention of graft failure following peripheral bypass graft surgery. The company recently completed enrollment in a Phase III trial studying the treatment in coronary artery bypass graft failure. Corgentech plans to submit both trials to the FDA for approval. The FDA has granted E2F Decoy fast-track status.

• DOR BioPharma Inc., of Miami, said it remains on track to report results during the third quarter of 2004 from its Phase III study of orBec with a new drug application scheduled for later that year. The oral steroid remains in a pivotal trial for graft-vs.-host disease associated with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. DOR also is developing two biodefense vaccines, one against ricin toxin and the other against botulinum toxin. The former is the subject of a $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The award went to the company's collaborator at the University of Texas.

• Dyax Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling that affirms the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granting summary judgment that Dyax does not infringe three patents asserted by George Piecznik. Piecznik has filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court for review of the decision. The plaintiff also filed a similar action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that Dyax infringes a fourth patent. The U.S. patents in question are Nos. 4,359,535; 4,528,266; and 5,866,363, as well as No. 6,605,448.

• Flavin Ventures, of Woodridge, Ill., has been launched. It is a venture capital and management group focused on start-ups and the development of early stage life science companies and was established by the management team that launched and funded MediChem Life Sciences Inc. and Advanced Life Sciences. The firm's geographic emphasis will be on the Midwestern U.S.

• Galileo Genomics Inc., of Montreal, said it would use servers from IBM Corp., of Armonk, N.Y., to run its laboratory, clinical and business applications. Among the software applications, privately held Galileo is piloting a cluster of IBM's eServer xSeries running Linux to analyze genetic data from the Quebec Founder Population, a homogenous population of $6 million distantly related Quebec residents, to identify genes that cause common diseases such as diabetes, schizophrenia and asthma. Galileo also is using the Laboratory Instrument Management System.

• Genelabs Technologies Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., could raise up to $23.1 million after registering a best-efforts public offering of up to 15 million common shares. The stock (NASDAQ:GNLB) closed at $1.54 on Tuesday, the day before the company said it filed a preliminary prospectus supplement to its shelf registration statement. Genelabs appointed Natexis Bleichroeder Inc. as its agent for the purpose of soliciting and receiving offers for the purchase of all or part of the shares.

• GeneLogic Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., said it would no longer use TherImmune Research Corp., the name of the company it acquired for $52 million earlier this year. The company, which offers information services and contract study services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide, added that Stephen Trevisan will no longer serve as an officer and director. Formerly TherImmune's president and CEO, he will continue in an advisory role at least through the end of the year. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 26, 2003.)

• Genesis Bioventures Inc., of New York, and Corgenix Medical Corp., of Denver, said they agreed to waive one of the contingencies related to their proposed merger. GBI was to advance $500,000 to Corgenix out of an equity capital raise of at least $3 million by Sept. 30 per the merger agreement. An investment bank is in the process of a capital raise, so the contingency has been waived. The companies expect to complete the merger by Jan. 31.

• Genome Therapeutics Corp., of Waltham, Mass., raised about $9.6 million in gross proceeds through a private placement of common stock. The company said it would use the approximate $9 million in net proceeds to accelerate and expand ongoing clinical studies of its lead product candidate, Ramoplanin. About 3.8 million common shares were issued to several new institutional shareholders, led by Domain Public Equity Partners LP. The investors also received five-year warrants to purchase 1.9 million shares at an exercise price of $3.48 apiece. Certain existing investors have the right to purchase an additional 1.4 million shares on the same terms. Life Science Group acted as the transaction's placement agent.

• Gen-Probe Inc., of San Diego, completed a 2-for-1 split of its common shares by means of a 100 percent stock dividend. Its board approved the dividend for shareholders of record as of Sept. 16. After the split, Gen-Probe will have about 48 million common shares outstanding. The additional shares were distributed by its transfer agent, Mellon Investor Services LLC, on Sept. 30. Outstanding stock options were adjusted to reflect the divided.

• GenSci Regeneration Sciences Inc., of Toronto, said shareholders supported the merger GenSci's main subsidiary, GenSci OrthoBiologics, with IsoTis SA, of Lausanne, Switzerland, at the extraordinary general meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. At the meeting, a special resolution approving the merger was passed by 99.9 percent of the votes cast by GenSci shareholders present or represented by proxy.

• Genzyme Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., said Renagel (sevelamer hydrochloride) was listed among first-line options for reducing phosphorus in patients on hemodialysis in new clinical practice guidelines published by the National Kidney Foundation. The guidelines, which are related to bone metabolism and disease in patients with chronic kidney disease, appear as a supplement to this month's issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases and also define a broader set of patients for whom calcium-based phosphate binders are not appropriate. Renagel is the only phosphate binder available to patients on dialysis that does not contain either calcium or a metal, Genzyme said, and it is not absorbed into the bloodstream nor does it accumulate in the body.

• Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, raised $62.5 million after closing its public offering of 2.5 million common shares at $25 apiece. The company sold all the shares in the offering, which was co-managed by Jefferies & Co. Inc. and SG Cowen Securities Corp. But its share value slipped considerably on news of an analyst downgrade. The stock (NASDAQ:HEPH) dropped $4.79 Wednesday, or 19.8 percent, to close at $19.45. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 29, 2003.)

• Hybridon Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., reported the publication of a paper on an Mdm2 antisense oligonucleotide in models of human prostate cancer. The article appears in the Sept. 30, 2003, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study included three human prostate cancer cell lines, representing different functional status of the cancer suppressor protein p53. The Mdm2 antisense oligonucleotide caused a concentration-dependent increase in apoptosis and inhibition of cell proliferation in all three cell lines in vitro.

• ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Costa Mesa, Calif., said it received $58 million in cash after selling its Personal Radiation Dosimetry service division to Global Dosimetry Solutions Inc., of Bethesda, Md. The sale included all the properties, assets and contracts of Dosimetry. The division sold was included in ICN Biomedicals and previously reported as discontinued operations. Other terms were not disclosed.

• Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., reported the publication of data by the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that a synthetic anti-inflammatory and analgesic cannabinoid compound, known as IP 751, reduced the degree of neuropathic pain in a Phase II trial without causing psychoactive adverse events. The trial involved 21 patients who had chronic neuropathic pain syndromes as a result of previous spinal or peripheral nerve injuries, despite receiving standard pain medication that continued during the trial.

• Lorus Therapeutics Inc., of Toronto, published the results of experimental studies aimed at developing a cancer gene therapy based on overexpression of a tumor suppressor gene in colon cancer cells. The results appear in the Oct. 1, 2003, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, demonstrating that the large subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, called R1, acts as a tumor suppressor.

• Maxim Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said results of research that suggested the combination of Ceplene (histamine dihydrochloride) and chemotherapy had synergistic antitumor activity in the treatment of soft-tissue sarcomas were presented. In the preclinical study, there were higher tumor response rates among animals treated with histamine in combination with chemotherapy and in animals treated with histamine alone, compared to response rates in animals treated with chemotherapy alone. Ceplene, based on the naturally occurring molecule histamine, has been shown to reduce oxidative stress.

• MedImmune Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., submitted an investigational new drug application to the FDA to evaluate Numax in preventing serious syncytial virus disease. A protocol was prepared to assess the safety and tolerability of Numax in healthy adult volunteers, as well as to gather pharmacokinetics and immunogenicity data. Preclinical studies have shown Numax might be 20 times to 100 times more potent against the RSV virus than MedImmune's Synagis (palivizumab), the company said.

• Miikana Therapeutics Inc., of Toronto, raised $4.25 million through a Series A round to support its cancer drug discovery and development programs. Established last year by members of the cancer research team of the University Health Network's Ontario Cancer Institute and the former Amgen Research Institute in Toronto, the company has assembled its medicinal chemists in Fremont, Calif., as well as a management team of scientists and clinical drug developers. Miikana said it is building its pipeline through internal research as well as through in-licensing of preclinical and early clinical drug candidates. The investment was co-led by 5AM Ventures and Aravis Ventures, and included Novartis Venture Fund and Queensland Asset Management.

• NeoPharm Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., filed a shelf registration statement with the SEC for a proposed mixed offering of up to $125 million of its common stock, preferred stock or a combination of the securities, from time to time. The company noted that it has no immediate plans to sell any securities under the shelf.

• Pintex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., said findings published in the Oct. 1, 2003, issue of Cancer Research described the Pin1 enzyme as an independent marker that outperforms other indicators of prostate cancer disease-free survival. The company said the discovery improves the ability to predict the outcome of newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients, and also means that the amount of Pin1 present in pretherapy biopsies may allow doctors to counsel patients diagnosed with potential prostate cancer to wait and see, avoiding or delaying surgery or radiation.

• Pluristem Life Sciences Inc., of Haifa, Israel, signed research and development agreements with major medical institutions in Israel. The institutions will provide Pluristem with cord blood to further the development of its stem cell expansion technology. The cord blood will be used to further the company's research in stem cell expansion without differentiation. Stem cells will be extracted from the cord blood and expanded within the PluriX Plug Flow Bioreactor system.

• Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The grant supports preclinical studies intended to assess the activity of Triapine in combination with various nucleoside analogues against human immunodeficiency, herpes simplex and hepatitis B viruses. Triapine, a small-molecule inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase, is in Phase II cancer trials.

• ViroPharma Inc., of Exton, Pa., said it would receive up to $2.26 million as part of two Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grants from the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a unit of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. Both awards will help further the company's development of small-molecule antiviral drug candidates designed as countermeasures against bioterrorism threats. The first award focuses on ViroPharma's smallpox virus antiviral project, while the second is for its efforts in viral hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Lassa and Rift Valley fever viruses and Machupo virus).