• 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, formalized its collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, to identify novel ligands for drug discovery associated with three unspecified targets. 4SC will screen a pool of approximately 3.3 million small organic molecules for their effectiveness against the targets and will provide the most potent ones to Boehringer for further screening and development. Boehringer will pay 4SC an undisclosed sum up front and will make additional research payments over the course of the program. Founded in 1997, 4SC specializes in infectious and hyperproliferative diseases, and it has four projects for treating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, malaria and cancer in preclinical studies.

• Actelion Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, has begun European sales of Zavesca, an oral treatment for Type 1 Gaucher's disease, a rare genetic condition. The drug is a small molecule developed by Oxford GlycoScience plc, of Abingdon, UK, and intended for patients for whom enzyme replacement therapy is unsuitable. The treatment is first available in the United Kingdom, and the company expects to make it available throughout the European Union in the next few months. The companies are in the final stages of amending their new drug application with the U.S. FDA.

• Adprotech Ltd., of Saffron Waldon, UK, announced lead product APT070 has entered Phase IIa clinical trials for the prevention of ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury in kidney transplants. APT070 reduces I/R injury by binding to kidney tissue and protecting it from attack by the recipient's complement system following re-initiation of blood flow after grafting. The randomized, double-blind study will compare APT070 with placebo in 45 transplant patients at hospitals in the UK. The product has orphan drug status in Europe.

• AquaPharm Bio-Discovery Ltd., of Edinburgh, UK, won a £50,000 ($79,000) government grant to develop its marine drug discovery program. The company specializes in the culturing and fermentation of marine bacteria and fungi as potential drugs, and has already identified a lead compound that is active against the hospital superbug, MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Founded in 2000, AquaPharm is seeking to raise £2 million.

• Deloitte & Touche withdrew as auditors of the animal testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences plc (HLS) after an intimidating campaign by animal rights protestors. John Connolly, Deloitte and Touche's senior partner in the UK, said, "Having completed the audit for 2002, we will not be offering ourselves up for re-election as auditors of HLS." In January the UK government was forced to step in to provide insurance coverage for HLS after its insurer, Marsh and McLennan, also withdrew after a similar campaign by the protest group Stop Huntingdon Life Sciences.

• Genome Express, of Grenoble, France, acquired the Sciclone ALH high-throughput DNA sequencing and analysis technology of Zymark Corp. to speed up its DNA sequencing operations. Hopkinton, Mass.-based Zymark specializes in automated laboratory systems for the biopharmaceutical industry, and Sciclone ALH is an automated liquids extraction and distribution system that performs numerous functions that have required several different pieces of equipment up to now.

• Meristem Therapeutics, of Clermont-Ferrand, France, appointed Ron Wiseman to the post of U.S. director of commercial development. He will report to Sancha Salgueiro, director of business development at the company's newly created U.S. business development office in Cambridge, Mass.

• Microscience Ltd., of Wokingham, UK, announced positive results in a U.S. Phase I/II trial of its freeze-dried single-dose oral typhoid vaccine. The study involved 60 healthy adults in a randomized, double-blind, dose-escalation trial. The volunteers who received the highest dose all showed a mucosal and systemic immune response. R&D Director Steve Chatfield told BioWorld International, "We have dealt with the production issues up front and were actually using the product we intend to commercialize, which gives us a huge advantage here." The company is planning a Phase II efficacy trial in an area where typhoid is endemic. It is also developing the typhoid vaccine as a vector for other antigens, and vaccines against travelers' diarrhea and chronic hepatitis B are both scheduled to enter clinical trials later this year.

• MorphoSys AG, of Martinsried, Germany, started a collaboration and cross-license agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, under which MorphoSys will have exclusive global rights to develop, produce and market antibodies targeting the ICAM-1 molecule. Previous research in mouse models by Boehringer suggests that antibodies that work against ICAM-1 could be effective in treating deep dermal burns and rheumatoid arthritis. MorphoSys will make milestone and royalty payments to Boehringer as the program advances. In the second half of the agreement, Boehringer will receive exclusive commercial licenses for therapeutic antibodies, which MorphoSys will generate from its human combinatorial antibody library technology, against two undisclosed targets. Boehringer will make milestone and royalty payments to MorphoSys for the development and sale of the antibodies.

• NeuroSearch A/S, of Ballerup, Denmark, said it uncovered a new mechanism for treating incontinence, based on its ongoing ion channel research. It has already identified leads that exhibit "promising efficacy" in animal models of the condition, it said. Its prototype drug, NS309, which it is studying in collaboration with Karl-Erik Andersson, of Lund University in Sweden, acts on the nerves that control contractions of the urinary bladder and does not appear to elicit side effects associated with existing treatments.

• Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA, of Bresso, Italy, said it moved NW-1029, a sodium channel blocker in development for treatment of pain, into clinical development, following publication of positive preclinical data. These indicate, the company said, that NW-1029, a member of the alpha-aminoamide family, has potent and long-lasting antihyperalgesic and anti-allodynic activity in models of chronic pain. The findings are reported in a paper published in the journal Pain titled "Antiallodynic effect of NW-1029, a novel Na+ channel blocker, in experimental animal models of inflammatory and neuropathic pain."

• Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, said it received approval from the UK Gene Therapy Advisory Committee to start a Phase II trial of its cancer gene therapy treatment TroVax in the treatment of colorectal cancer. The trial, which will start within two months, will test TroVax as an adjuvant therapy with standard chemotherapy. TroVax delivers the gene for 5T4, a protein that exists only on the surface of tumor cells, and is intended to induce an anti-tumor immune response. In the Phase I/II trials in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, TroVax induced anti-5T4 antibodies and T cells in 11 of 12 patients, and there was some evidence of efficacy. The aim of the open-label study in 15 patients is to show that TroVax induces an anti-5T4 response when administered with chemotherapy.

• PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, of Oxford, UK, said it received approval in Canada for Dukoral, its oral vaccine against cholera and travelers' diarrhea.

• Prionics AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, said it won a competitive bid to supply 500,000 BSE tests to Italy's three largest testing laboratories. The contract, the largest of its kind in Italy, secures the company's position in the Italian market, which it has supplied since 2000. Earlier this year, Prionics established an Italian subsidiary, Prionics Italia SRL, in Milan.

• Psimei Pharmaceuticals plc, of Guildford, UK, said it won a £450,000 (US$709,000) government grant to enable it to progress its photon activation therapy (PAT) for treating cancer into clinical trials. PAT involves the use of an inert boron-based compound that is selectively taken up by tumor cells. The compound is activated by standard radiotherapy X-rays, resulting in greater tumor cell destruction than achieved by X-rays alone.

• Serono SA, of Geneva, submitted a marketing authorization application for Raptiva (efalizumab) to the European Medicines Evaluation Agency in London for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis. The EMEA has confirmed that the application is valid and that the regulatory procedure has started. Serono plans to file the product in Canada, Australia and Switzerland as well before the end of this quarter. Serono is developing and marketing Raptiva outside Japan and the United States under license from Genentech Inc.

• SkyePharma plc, of London, said its Biosphere sustained-release injectable technology has been successful in delivering a protein drug over an extended period of time. The company said that in animal studies human growth hormone was encapsulated and released evenly over two weeks, following a single injection. The structure and function of the hormone was preserved throughout, and SkyePharma said it is planning clinical trials.

• Xerion Pharmaceuticals AG, of Martinsried, Germany, acquired exclusive rights to cancer metastases targets that have been discovered as part of ongoing research with Daniel Jay, a professor of physiology at Tufts University in Boston. The company plans to create therapeutic antibodies against the targets. Xerion concentrates on metastatic cancers and acute cardiovascular diseases. The company was founded in August 1998, and has raised €27 million in three rounds of financing, most recently raising €12.3 million in October 2002.