• Agensys Inc., of Santa Monica, Calif., secured a $3 million line of credit from Silicon Valley Bank. The financing facility will fund equipment purchases and the expansion of Agensys' on-site antibody fermentation and purification facilities. Agensys has discovered and validated a portfolio of cancer targets, it said.

• Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said shareholders approved a 2-for-1 stock split. The record date for the stock split is expected to be March 17. Angiotech focuses on enhancing medical devices and biomaterials through the use of pharmacotherapeutics.

• Axcan Pharma Inc., of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, closed its offering of $125 million in 4.25 percent convertible subordinated notes due April 15, 2008. That amount includes the exercise option of $15 million to cover overallotments. The notes will be convertible into about 8.9 million shares at an initial conversion price of $14.01. Axcan received about $120.8 million from the offering and said it would use the funds for general corporate purposes. Axcan focuses on gastroenterology.

• Bavarian Nordic A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said its pilot HIV vaccine candidate, MVA-BN nef, has been evaluated in a Phase I/II study in 14 HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy. Up to 11 months after stopping antiretroviral therapy, the levels of HIV in seven patients remained below their pre-therapy level.

• Biopure Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, Md., to enable the NMRC to participate in a pivotal trial of the company's investigational oxygen therapeutic, Hemopure (hemoglobin glutamer - 250 [bovine]), in pre-hospital trauma. Participation in the effort will cost the NMRC an estimated $4 million. Biopure will contribute an estimated $8.7 million, of which at least $643,000 will be provided during the first year.

• CV Therapeutics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., said the FDA accepted its new drug application for Ranexa (ranolazine) in chronic angina. If approved, Ranexa, which is designed to partially inhibit fatty acid oxidation, would represent the first in a new class of anti-anginal therapy in more than 20 years, it said. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 31, 2002.)

• DiaDexus Inc., of South San Francisco, submitted to the FDA a 510(k) pre-market application seeking marketing clearance for its PLAC test as an in vitro diagnostic product to predict the risk for coronary artery disease. DiaDexus said the test is a quantitative blood measurement of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2.

• EDEN Bioscience Corp., of Bothell, Wash., said it received conditional registration from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation for the sale and use of its Messenger product on citrus and tomatoes to increase overall production. The department has approved its use on tomatoes for disease management. Messenger is based on naturally occurring proteins called harpins that activate a plant's ability to protect itself through growth and stress-defense responses.

• GeneSoft Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, said the FDA's anti-infective drugs advisory committee recommended approval of Factive (gemifloxacin). The committee voted 18 in favor, with one abstention, to recommend its approval for mild to moderate community-acquired pneumonia. Also, a majority of members voted in favor of the quinolone antibiotic's use for acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis.

• GTC Therapeutics Inc., of Framingham, Mass., reported that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., approved a proposal to fund development of a clinical-grade recombinant form of Merozoite Surface Protein 1 (MSP-1) antigen of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite as a vaccine for malaria. The work will include developing founder goats that express the MSP-1 antigen in their milk, as well as the downstream purification process and final product formulation. GTC's portion of the project will be funded by the government and will total at least $4.9 million, it said.

• Hybridon Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., received patent sublicense income from Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., as a result of license agreements entered between Isis and third parties. Hybridon entered a collaboration and license agreement in May 2001 in which Isis licensed Hybridon's patents covering antisense chemistry and oral delivery, while Hybridon retained the right to practice its licensed antisense patents for its own drug discovery and development programs and with collaborators. (See BioWorld Today, May 29, 2001.)

• Juvaris BioTherapeutics Inc., of Pleasanton, Calif., appointed Martin Cleary as chairman, president and CEO. Cleary previously was with Genteric Inc. as president and CEO, and between 1999 and 2002 the company raised $32 million. Juvaris focuses on therapeutic vaccines and owns exclusive rights to technology platforms developed at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver.

• Lynx Therapeutics Inc., of Hayward, Calif., entered an agreement for a comparative transcriptome study with the Genome Institute of Singapore at the National University of Singapore. Lynx will apply its Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing technology to generate comprehensive gene expression profiles from matched samples from human, mouse and fish tissues. Lynx will receive payments for the genomics discovery services that it performs on the samples provided. Financial details were not disclosed.

• Pharmos Corp., of Iselin, N.J., raised $4.3 million in gross proceeds through an issuance of common stock and warrants to a group of institutional investors. The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. The company also reported that it redeemed the balance of its 6 percent convertible debentures due June 2003. The $3.5 million original issue amount of the notes was redeemed for about $3.8 million, including accrued and unpaid interest. Pharmos focuses on therapeutics to treat neurological and inflammation-based disorders.

• ProdiGene Inc., of College Station, Texas, appointed Russell Burbank CEO and president. Burbank is a managing director of The Scotland Group Inc., a professional turnaround organization. The company also appointed John Howard vice president and chief technical officer. ProdiGene develops and manufactures industrial and pharmaceutical proteins from its transgenic plant system.

• SR Pharma plc, of London, and Genesis Research and Development Corp., of Auckland, New Zealand, reported the successful completion of a Phase I study of AVAC, a derivative of M. vaccae, for the treatment of atopic dermatitis in children. The study involved 12 children aged 5 to 16 years. Mild injection site reactions were the most common side effect of treatment.

• Syrrx Inc., of San Diego, said it had a "successful assertion" of U.S. patent 6,296,673, a patent that covers the crystallization of proteins in submicroliter volumes. Syrrx brought a federal action against Oculus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Birmingham, Ala., in April 2002 for infringing the patent. In a consent judgment, Oculus acknowledged the validity and enforceability of the patent and agreed it had infringed, Syrrx said. Oculus accepted the court's order that enjoins Oculus from involvement in any further action leading to the infringement of the patent.

• Texas Biotechnology Corp., of Houston, and GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, reported at the American Stroke Association's 28th International Stroke Conference in Phoenix, results of ARGIS-I, a Phase II multicenter trial of Argatroban in patients with acute ischemic stroke administered within 12 hours of symptom onset. The placebo-controlled study supported the tolerability of Argatroban, showing no statistically significant differences between Argatroban and placebo in symptomatic or asymptomatic intracranial hemorrhage, the company said.