• Advanced Viral Research Corp., of Yonkers, N.Y., said that, in consultation with the Selikoff Center for Environmental Health and Human Development in Ra'anana, Israel, it initiated activities necessary to expand the ongoing Israeli trial of Product R for the treatment of AIDS patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy. The company said it directed the staff of the Selikoff Center, in collaboration with the principal investigator, to begin developing protocols for a multicenter, late-stage Phase II trial of Product R in AIDS patients who are in need of salvage therapy.

• Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., and ParAllele Bioscience, of South San Francisco, reported an agreement under which Affymetrix will supply ParAllele with GeneChip Tag Arrays for use in combination with ParAllele's lab-in-a-tube assay technology for custom single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping. Under the terms of the three-year, nonexclusive agreement, Affymetrix will supply catalog and custom-designed tag arrays to ParAllele for use in its commercial genotyping service business and with its pharmaceutical collaborators.

• ArQule Inc., of Woburn, Mass., said it achieved its 2002 collaboration goals for an agreement with Pfizer Inc., of New York, triggering a $5 million additional equity investment from its pharmaceutical partner. The payment is the second of three planned investments as part of the expanded, seven-year $345 million collaboration signed in December 2001. Pfizer could make an additional equity investment next year if ArQule meets certain collaboration goals. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 24, 2001.)

• Biokeys Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, reported that its HIV viral entry inhibitor, BlockAide/CR, which is being readied for human trials, appears to be interfering with an HIV infection step common to the entry of diverse HIV-1 strains. BlockAide/CR was first identified and subsequently developed by scientists at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for its anti-HIV properties. The drug is licensed to Biokeys by M.D. Anderson on an exclusive, worldwide basis.

• Cephalon Inc., of West Chester, Pa., entered an agreement with Tanabe Seiyaku Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, to commercialize Actiq (oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate). Tanabe will develop, register and market Actiq in Japan and any future formulations or improvements of the product for breakthrough pain in cancer patients. Tanabe also will have the opportunity to develop and commercialize other breakthrough pain products from Cephalon in that country. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, said its shareholders approved the proposed sale of its primary care franchise, principally certain commercial rights to Sonata (zaleplon) and Skelaxin (metaxalone) and certain associated assets, to King Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bristol, Tenn. The shareholders also approved a special resolution for the disapplication of pre-emption rights proposed at a special shareholders meeting. Elan reiterated its belief that it has met all conditions for closing the sale. Elan on Monday filed a lawsuit to compel King to perform its part of the agreement. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 31, 2003.)

• Endovasc Ltd. Inc., of Montgomery, Texas, said that at the close of business on Feb. 24, stockholders representing a majority of the company's outstanding stock approved the issuance of a forward stock split and a re-incorporation into the state of Nevada. For each five shares presently owned, shareholders will receive six shares. The reincorporation will be accomplished by a merger of Endovasc Ltd. Inc., into the wholly owned Nevada subsidiary Endovasc Inc. The old shares of Endovasc will cease to trade on the OTC Bulletin Board market and the shares of Endovasc Inc. will begin trading beginning on April 1, under a new trading symbol.

• Geron Corp., of Menlo Park, Calif., reported the publication of research results that support the use of telomerase for widespread applications in cancer immunotherapy. The research, published in the March 2003 issue of Cancer Gene Therapy, shows that different types of cancer cells, including cancer cells without any known tumor-associated antigens, can be killed by telomerase-based immunotherapy, the company said. Geron's stock (NASDAQ:GERN) rose $2.47 Tuesday, or 143 percent, to close at $4.20.

• Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., registered with the SEC $345 million of 2 percent convertible senior notes due Dec. 15, 2007, as well as common shares into which the notes are convertible. The note holders can convert their notes into common shares at any time at a conversion price of $47. Four months ago Gilead reported plans to offer the notes in an effort to bolster its cash reserves in advance of its proposed merger with Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Durham, N.C. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 5, 2002 and Dec. 16, 2002.)

• Gyros AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, said Fluidigm Corp., of South San Francisco, became the first company to license a patent family that covers the development of certain microfluidic devices based on elastomeric layers. Gyros, spun out of Amersham Biosciences AB in 2000, said it expects additional deals based on this patent estate, which applies in other biotechnology markets as well as the U.S.

• Human Genome Sciences Inc., of Rockville, Md., said it discovered and developed a human monoclonal antibody drug that is effective in protecting against anthrax in multiple experimental models in animals. A single dose of the new drug, ABthrax, increases survival in both rabbit and nonhuman primate models of inhalational anthrax. The company plans to develop ABthrax for use as a prophylactic and therapeutic drug to prevent and treat anthrax infections. The company said it would file an investigational new drug application in "the near future" to test the safety, tolerability and pharmacology in humans.

• Insightful Corp., of Seattle, released its ArrayAnalyzer microarray analysis module for the S-Plus data analysis software package. The module stems from a collaboration with The BioConductor Project, a team of academic researchers in the field of microarray data analysis.

• Metabolex Inc., of Hayward, Calif., said Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, selected three targets for drug screening as part of a year-old research collaboration. The selection triggered undisclosed milestone payments to privately held Metabolex. In the joint program to develop therapeutics for Type II diabetes, insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance and obesity, Yamanouchi plans to identify candidate compounds from at least 10 targets discovered through analysis of Metabolex's gene database. (See BioWorld Today, March 21, 2002.)

• MicroIslet Inc., of San Diego, and The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., reported that they entered a collaboration in islet cell transplantation therapies for treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes. MicroIslet and TSRI plan to conduct preclinical studies using MicroIslet's technologies. MicroIslet believes the completion of the work will set the stage for studies enabling an investigational new drug application and could be included as part of the IND process for clinical trials.

• NuGEN Technologies Inc., of San Carlos, Calif., reported the introduction of the Ovation Nanosample RNA Amplification System for gene expression profiling on commercial and self-spotted oligo and cDNA microarrays. The Ovation Nanosample RNA Amplification System uses the Ribo-SPIA RNA amplification process, which was developed by NuGEN, it said.

• Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tustin, Calif., reported that chief operating officer Steven King was named president and CEO. In addition to serving as chief operating officer, King has been serving as president and CEO of the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Avid Biosciences Inc. Effective Monday, the company accepted Edward Legere's resignation as president and CEO. Legere will work as a full-time consultant during a three-month transition period and will remain a director of the company.

• Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., of Des Moines, Iowa, a subsidiary of Dupont, will expand its opportunity to introduce traits into maize through a new agreement with Cellectis SA, of Paris. Under a licensing agreement, researchers at Pioneer Hi-Bred will assess a Meganuclease Recombination System from Cellectis for use in trait development. MRS technology is based on the use of the Meganuclease I-Sce I, a specific restriction endonuclease. Pioneer researchers will use the technology to stimulate homologous recombination, which could lead to faster, more efficient processes for incorporating new traits into products, Pioneer said.

• The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse in Pittsburgh said it entered exclusive negotiations with PA Early Stage, a family of venture funds that invests in emerging companies, to manage the PLSG's initial contribution of $15 million in pre-seed and seed funds for investment into start-up and early stage life sciences companies. In addition, PA anticipates that it will co-invest up to $5 million with the PLSG, creating a pool of $20 million dedicated to investment in life sciences ventures.

• StemCo Biomedical Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., closed a $9.8 million Series B round of financing. Intersouth Partners and The Aurora Funds led the investment. New investors included Becton Dickinson Ventures, The Trelys Funds LP, Tall Oaks Capital Partners, as well as unnamed individuals. Founded by researchers from the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center and Stem Cell Transplant Program, StemCo is working to develop hematopoietic stem cell identification products.

• VaxGen Inc., of Brisbane, Calif., is the target of a class action suit. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, of San Diego, said a class action was begun in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of purchasers of securities between Aug. 6, 2002, and Feb. 26, 2003. The complaint charges VaxGen and certain of its officer and directors with violations of the SEC Act of 1934. In February, VaxGen reported that its trial of AidsVax did not show a statistically significant reduction of HIV infection within the study population as a whole. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 23, 2002.)

• Viragen Inc., of Plantation, Fla., reported that the company entered an agreement with Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, to obtain rights to a technology that might prove key in its collaboration with Roslin Institute to develop avian transgenic technology as a platform for the efficient, cost-effective manufacturing of protein drugs. The agreement provides Viragen with an option to acquire an exclusive worldwide license for gene transfer vectors. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• ViroLogic Inc., of South San Francisco, reported study results, published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggesting that its PhenoSense HIV Entry assay could accelerate the development of HIV vaccines. The study examined plasma samples from 14 recently infected patients.

• Virtual Arrays Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., was awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. The grant will enable the exploration of new methodologies to produce cell arrays on Virtual Arrays' CellCard platform and is titled "Cell Arrays Generated by a Novel Transfection Method."