Pro-Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newton, Mass., received a notice of allowance for its patent application titled "Methods and Compositions for Reducing Side Effects in Chemotherapeutic Treatments." The patent application covers methods for synthesizing covalently linked galactose to existing cancer drugs, and methods for treating cancer patients to reduce toxicity while improving antitumor activity.

Sunol Molecular Corp., of Miramar, Fla., was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,555,319, providing broad coverage on the privately held company's tissue factor antibodies.

The Genetics Co. Inc., of Schlieren, Switzerland, received U.S. Patent No. 6,548,733 B2 covering Invoscreen, its in vivo drug screening and validation platform in the fruit fly Drosophila.