• Acacia Research Corp., of Newport Beach, Calif., said operating unit CombiMatrix Corp. will make its new SARS microarrays available to government and academic researchers. Acacia said the CombiMatrix technology enables rapid content redesign and overnight synthesis of custom microarrays.

• Actelion Ltd., of Allschwil, Switzerland, said that at the upcoming American Thoracic Society scientific sessions to be held in Seattle, Vallerie McLaughlin, of Rush Presbyterian Medical Center in Chicago, will present an independent analysis of long-term follow-up data that showed a positive long-term survival benefit in a study involving 169 primary pulmonary hypertension patients who were treated with Tracleer as first-line treatment and were enrolled in the Tracleer pivotal registration studies.

• Active Biotech AB, of Lund, Sweden, said its cancer product, TTS CD2 (Tumor Targeted Superantigens), has shown positive survival results in non-small-cell lung cancer. Sixty-seven patients were included in a survival study performed as a follow-up on patients participating in Phase I studies of the product. The median survival time in the study was 8.1 months, which is comparable to treatments currently on the market, the company said. Of those, 25 percent lived for 17.4 months or longer. The one-year survival rate was 43 percent.

• AEterna Laboratories Inc., of Quebec City, Quebec, disclosed new scientific data from two studies on its lead anti-angiogenic compound Neovastat, which reinforces its anti-angiogenic properties. In the first study, a French researcher, through a proteomics approach allowing for the detection of proteins in the blood, discovered that Neovastat induces a significant decrease of hemoglobin in neoplastic tissues of animals treated with the drug. In the second study, though a genomics tool, it was found that Neovastat is able to modulate the expression of genes in endothelial cells in vitro.

• Agilent Technologies Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., released a 60-mer oligonucleotide rat microarray kit for genome screening and toxicogenomic research, designed to determine the effects of a toxic substance, drug or pesticide on an organism. Separately, Agilent entered a collaboration with North Carolina State University in Raleigh to facilitate research of rice blast disease, obtaining rights to use the gene sequences from the school's fungal genomics laboratory to develop another 60-mer oligo microarray.

• Albany Molecular Research Inc., of Albany, N.Y., lowered earnings expectations for the first quarter and full year as a result of reductions in research and development spending by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and increased costs at its recently purchased Organichem division. For the quarter, Albany Molecular expects earnings to range from 12 cents to 13 cents per share on a diluted basis, compared to previous estimates of 23 cents to 24 cents per share. For the year, Albany Molecular expects diluted earnings per share on a pro-forma basis, excluding one-time and purchase accounting charges, to range from $1.08 to $1.21 vs. previous guidance of $1.42 to $1.51. The company's stock (NASDAQ:AMRI) fell $3.02 Wednesday, or 20 percent, to close at $12.14.

• Cangene Corp., of Toronto, said it will undertake a third biodefense project as part of an initiative aimed at improving Canada's readiness in the event of chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents. Cangene will collaborate with Twinstrand Therapeutics, of Burnaby, British Columbia, on the government-funded project. The partners intend to develop antibody-based therapies for individuals exposed to ricin.

• Cellegy Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, changed the name of its lead drug Tostrex Gel to Fortigel after a request by the FDA. The agency feared that the original name could potentially confuse medical professionals and consumers when compared with currently marketed products. PDI Inc., of Upper Saddle River, N.J., is Cellegy's commercialization partner for the transdermal testosterone gel. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 3, 2003.)

• Cel-Sci Corp., of Vienna, Va., was awarded a $134,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a unit of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to further develop a treatment for autoimmune myocarditis, a heart disease. The Phase I work will be done in conjunction with the department of pathology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore.

• Cytos Biotechnology AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, initiated a Phase I trial of an Immunodrug for treating smoking addiction. The investigational drug is Nicotine-Qß, and the study is designed to evaluate safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine in healthy volunteers. The study is expected to include 40 volunteers.

• Devgen NV, of Ghent, Belgium, entered an agreement with FMC Corp., of Philadelphia, to extend their collaboration to April 2006. The four-year-old agreement has identified several new insecticide targets, genetically validated them and built them into high-throughput screening assays. The undisclosed target screens have yielded new chemistries that are being further progressed at FMC. Privately held Devgen and FMC signed their original three-year collaborative agreement in November 1999, which was extended in September 2001 through May 2005.

• Discovery Laboratories Inc., of Doylestown, Pa., said its lung surfactant technology was prepared successfully as an inhalable aerosol formulation that retained critical therapeutic properties. It exhibited key characteristics, the company said, including being of a particle size and distribution suitable for deposition in the lungs and retention of the essential pharmacological properties of a functioning surfactant, including the surface-tension-lowering abilities necessary to restore lung function and keep the airways open and expanded.

• Endovasc Inc., of Montgomery, Texas, said it will initiate a Phase II dose-ranging trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Liprostin (alprostadil) in the treatment of critical limb ischemia and intermittent claudication. The open-label study of Liprostin, a liposomal formulation of the prostaglandin E1(a) infused intravenously, will include about 100 patients at eight to 10 sites in Europe and Mexico. The study's primary endpoint is improvement in maximum walking distance from baseline.

• Guava Technologies Inc., of Hayward, Calif., launched the Guava PCA-96 system, which it said is the first 96-well microplate cell-analysis system that significantly increases throughput. The system is designed to simplify cell monitoring and screening in a single benchtop system.

• Iconix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., reported an agreement with Laurent El Ghaoui of the University of California at Berkeley to license exclusive rights to data-mining tools for experiments in predictive chemogenomics. Iconix will apply Ghaoui's data-mining tools to develop additional Drug Signatures, the company's library of biomarkers for toxicity and mechanism of action.

• Introgen Therapeutics Inc., of Austin, Texas, reported the publication of preclinical research that suggests INGN 241, its mda-7 therapeutic, shows promise as a possible treatment for prostate cancer. The study results were published in the online proceedings of the 2003 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. INGN also is being evaluated in Phase II testing for solid tumors.

• Kinexis Inc., of San Francisco, received an investment worth about $900,000 from InvestBio Ventures Kinexis GP, an InvestBio Ventures partnership. The early stage biotechnology firm has entered preclinical trials with its Prokineticin protein, a potential treatment for insomnia, gut motility problems and other disorders connected with the circadian rhythm. InvestBio Ventures is an operation of Diversified Biotech Holdings Corp., of New York.

• Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, and Teijin Ltd., of Tokyo, agreed to shelve their proposed plan to spin off and integrate their medical and pharmaceutical business groups. The companies, which in January planned the business integration, said they were unable to finalize an integration ratio that would have been equally convincing to their shareholders. But they said the future could include research and development collaborations.

• LION bioscience AG, of Heidelberg, Germany, and Cambridge, Mass., said it expanded its presence in the Italian life sciences market with new and upgraded licenses for SRS, its integration technology for biological data, as well as for its Expression Profiling Solution for better microarray analysis. Financial details were not disclosed.

• Lorus Therapeutics Inc., of Toronto, published experimental study results in an April issue of Anti-Cancer Drugs demonstrating the antitumor activity of Virulizin as a monotherapy and in combination with standard chemotherapy drugs. Lorus said the studies, carried out in mouse models bearing human tumors, are unique as they expand the potential application of Virulizin to include breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. Previously published data have demonstrated Virulizin's effectiveness as an antitumor agent in human pancreatic cancer and melanoma mouse models.

• Nymox Pharmaceutical Corp., of Maywood, N.J., said it is developing NXC-c4720, an antibacterial product that targets E. coli infection in meat. Nymox said studies showed that treatment with NXC-4720 cleared infected beef of E. coli 0157 contamination and helped prevent further E. coli contamination.

• Sirna Therapeutics Inc., of Boulder, Colo., consummated a previously announced private placement of $48 million of its common stock and warrants exercisable for additional shares of common stock. Formerly called Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Inc., its investors included the Sprout Group, Venrock Associates, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Techno Venture Management and Granite Global Ventures. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 13, 2003; March 4, 2003; and April 18, 2003.)

• Sonus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bothell, Wash., reported additional clinical evidence that its lead cancer drug, Tocosol paclitaxel, continues to demonstrate promising safety and antitumor efficacy in three ongoing Phase II studies in ovarian, non-small-cell lung and bladder cancers. The data were to have been presented earlier this month at the 2003 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Toronto, which was cancelled due to SARS. The results to date include objective responses (complete and partial responses) in 21 of 86 evaluable patients across all three studies, the company said.

• Theratechnologies Inc., of Montreal, completed enrollment in its Phase II study of ThGRF, a growth hormone-releasing factor analogue, in patients suffering from a catabolic state secondary to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Conducted in 20 centers in Canada and Europe, the double-blind, randomized, parallel group and placebo-controlled study is designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of two daily doses of ThGRF (1 mg and 2 mg) on body composition, physical capacity, functional status and quality of life in 90 patients ages 50 and older. Theratechnologies said it would analyze data and disclose results following the three-month treatment period.