• Acambis plc, of Cambridge, UK, said its CEO of seven years, John Brown, is leaving the company. The vaccines specialist has started to look for a replacement and Brown will stay until his successor is appointed. Brown said the move would give him the opportunity to spend more nights at home with his family in Edinburgh. "I've had a wonderful time doing this job. There is never a good time to step down, but the company is in very good shape," he said. The announcement coincided with half-year results showing revenue of £82.3 million (US$131 million), up from £12.9 million in the same period of 2002, resulting in a pretax profit of £20.6 million, compared to a £6.1 million loss in the first six months of 2002. The company has shot to profitability on the back of its contract to supply smallpox vaccine to the U.S. government, and Brown said production of all 155 million doses is now complete.

• Antisoma plc, of London, in-licensed a program of small-molecule telomerase inhibitors from Cancer Research Technology Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the charity Cancer Research UK. The license includes a number of existing molecules and rights to further inhibitors discovered over the next three years by Stephen Neidle, of the London School of Pharmacy. A spokesman for Antisoma said there was further work to be done to select a lead compound but the company expects to be in the clinic in the near term.

• Axxima Pharmaceuticals AG, of Munich, Germany, and BioFocus plc, of Cambridge, UK, announced positive results in developing assays for targets implicated in HIV. The companies also identified lead compounds active against one of Axxima's kinase targets. The firms will continue to collaborate in developing substances effective against HIV. They aim to create preclinical candidate compounds that Axxima will take into later stages of development. The results spurred an undisclosed milestone payment to BioFocus.

• Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc, of Cambridge, UK, said partner Abbott Laboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill., received European Commission approval to market Humira for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The product will be available in the UK and Germany this week, and will be launched in other European countries as and when pricing and reimbursement are set. CAT and Abbott currently are in dispute over the level of royalties CAT is entitled to on sales of the anti-TNF-alpha antibody.

• Cardiff University in Wales this week opened a new center for research into the personal, social and ethical consequences of genetic technologies. CESAGen, the Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics, will bring together biomedical researchers, clinicians and social scientists to carry out cross-disciplinary studies in the field.

• Celltech Group plc, of Slough, UK, entered a collaboration with Access Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Dallas, to develop an oral delivery route for Celltech's monoclonal antibodies and antibody fragments. Celltech has licensed Access's vitamin B12 technology for a defined number of antigens. The technology uses the natural transport system whereby vitamin B12 is transported from the gut to the bloodstream. The Celltech products will be encapsulated in nanoparticles and attached to vitamin B12. No financial details were disclosed.

• DNA Research Innovations Ltd., of London, said it met milestones set by investors, triggering payment of a second tranche of investment of £2.5 million (US$4 million). DRI has developed a new method for the automated extraction and purification of DNA, making the process simpler and more reliable, and the new funding will advance its commercialization, it said.

• F2G Ltd., of Manchester, UK, announced a collaboration with Asinex Ltd., of Moscow, to access chemical libraries to screen and develop compounds for the treatment of systemic fungal infections. Rights to any compounds selected for development will belong to F2G. The company has a genomics-based platform technology for identifying and validating gene targets in Aspergillus fumigatus.

• GPC Biotech AG, of Martinsried, Germany, presented positive results on its anticancer monoclonal antibody at the Biotherapy Development Association's World Congress. The antibody previously had been shown to selectively induce apoptosis in a variety of lymphoid tumor models. The new results come from the evaluation of GPC's antibody with Rituxan in an in vivo non-Hodgkin's lymphoma model, and the two antibodies showed clear synergies. The cure rate of the combination was consistently higher than with either agent alone. In a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma model, human tumor xenografts grown in mice, GPC's antibody and Rituxan were administered together and approximately doubled both the time to disease progression and the proportion of long-term survivors. GPC's lead compound recently was approved for a Phase III registrational trial. (See BioWorld International, Sept. 3, 2003.)

• MediGene AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said Johanna Holldack, COO for research and development, will depart from the firm at the end of September. At the same time, the company has appointed K. Jon (Kerry) Kowal as senior vice president and global director of research and development. Kowal previously had been managing director and director of research and development at the company's subsidiary in San Diego. The company is in the process of moving its R&D department from San Diego to Martinsried.

• NicOx SA, of Sophia Antipolis, France, announced positive results from a clinical endoscopy trial of its nitric oxide-donating aspirin NCX 4016, showing that it protects against aspirin-induced gastric damage. The drug is in Phase II development for the treatment of peripheral arterial obstructive disease, a condition caused by ischemia in the legs. That was the third endoscopy trial of NCX 4016 and entailed the administration of the drug both as a monotherapy and in conjunction with regular aspirin. The results are to be presented to the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 9.

• Pharmexa A/S, of Horsholm, Denmark, said recruitment into a U.S. Phase I trial of its HER-2 AutoVac Protein vaccine has been completed and it expects to report preliminary results before the year-end. The trial involves 10 breast cancer patients. The main aim of the study is to assess safety, but the ability of the vaccine to elicit an antibody response against cells expressing the HER-2 protein, which is associated with an aggressive form of metastatic breast cancer, will also be evaluated.

• Xantos Biomedicine AG, of Munich, Germany, promoted Stephan Wehselau from CFO to CEO, effective Oct. 1. As part of the promotion, he also will serve on the company's board of directors. Peter Buckel, the current CEO, will become chairman of the company's scientific advisory board. Xantos is a functional biology and drug discovery company, developing drugs in the areas of cancer and metabolic, inflammatory and degenerative diseases.

• Xenova Group plc, of Slough, UK, completed its all-share takeover of KS Biomedix plc, of Guildford, UK. John Rennocks and Michael Young, nonexecutive directors of KS Biomedix, have joined the board of Xenova.