• Alteon Inc., of Ramsey, N.J., reported positive results from a preliminary analysis of the Phase IIa Diamond trial evaluating the activity of ALT-711 in diastolic heart failure patients. The Diamond trial is ongoing, and additional analyses of the data are being conducted. Patients who received ALT-711 for 16 weeks experienced a statistically significant reduction in left ventricular mass, in a preliminary analysis of the first 17 patients in the trial. Diamond patients also had a marked improvement in left ventricular diastolic filing. Additionally, the drug had a positive effect on patients' quality of life, the company said. Alteon's stock (AMEX:ALT) gained 28 cents Tuesday, or 13.8 percent, to close at $2.31.

• AngioDesign Inc., of Lincoln, Neb., said it determined the 3-dimensional crystal structure of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), a finding reported in the Jan. 19 online edition of Nature. The newly formed company said improvements could be made on current ACE inhibitors - hampered by common side effects - by creating next-generation ACE inhibitors based on structure-guided drug design. Design of specific domain-selective ACE inhibitors is expected to produce drugs that are safer and more effective, it said.

• Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said it expects to implement a 2-for-1 stock split, subject to shareholder approval, which it will seek at a March 3 meeting. Subject to receiving approval, the record date for the split is expected to be March 17.

• Ardais Corp., of Lexington, Mass., appointed Gregory Phelps CEO. He most recently served as vice chairman of Dyax Corp., of Cambridge, Mass. Privately held Ardais uses its library of more than 130,000 tissue samples and associated clinical information representing a broad diversity of disease for drug discovery.

• Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc., of Wellesley, Mass., received a milestone payment from Aventis Pharma AG, of Frankfurt, Germany, stemming from the development of CpG 7279, a B-class oligonucleotide that has indicated in animal studies it can prevent or reverse asthmatic responses to allergens. CpG 7279 is exclusively licensed to Aventis for asthma and allergic rhinitis applications and is on track to enter clinical trials for asthma, the company said. Financial details of the milestone were not disclosed.

• Cyclacel Ltd., of Dundee, UK, initiated patient screening and enrollment in two Phase IIa trials of its oral CDK inhibitor, CYC202, for the treatment of breast and lung cancer in combination with standard chemotherapy regimens. One trial will explore the use of CYC202 in stage IIIB/IV non-small-cell lung cancer in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatinum. The other will evaluate CYC202 in advanced breast cancer in combination with capecitabine, an oral prodrug of 5-FU. The open-label studies will each recruit up to 30 patients. Both trials will evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetic profile, anti-tumor activity and the effect on biomarkers of the combination therapy.

• Cytos Biotechnology AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, reported interim results of a Phase I trial showing good antibody responses after a single immunization with the Immunodrug Qb-Derp1. Antibody responses against Derp1 have been determined in 24 healthy volunteers four weeks following administration of the first of three planned doses. The study is designed to evaluate its tolerability and immunogenicity and to compare subcutaneous and intramuscular administration as well as 50 g and 10 g doses. Both routes of administration were similarly effective and both doses were well tolerated. Individuals receiving a 50 g dose of Immunodrug produced an antibody response with a high titer (ELISA average above one in 10,000, ranging from one in 3,000 to one in 40,000), whereas individuals receiving 10 g had titers that were three times lower (p<0.005).

• Deltagen Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., added to its DeltaOne website a fully searchable list of DeltaOne genes and data. Customers will be able to search the list of 500 currently available gene knockouts by gene name, gene family or subfamily, in addition to using the previously available target sequence comparison search tools.

• Elitra Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, received the first milestone payment under its research collaboration with Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., resulting from the delivery and acceptance of an undisclosed number of high-throughput screening assays. Under the collaboration signed in October 2001, Elitra has agreed to provide Merck with a defined number of antibiotic targets for screening against Merck's natural product and compound libraries. Merck and Elitra also are jointly funding the development of a bacterial technology, named the TargetArray, which identifies and characterizes the biological target of compounds showing antibiotic activity against bacterial pathogens. Elitra would receive additional payments upon the achievement of certain developmental milestones and royalties on sales of any resulting products. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 26, 2001.)

• Eurand International SpA, of Milan, Italy, signed a definitive licensing agreement for a marketed, fast-melt drug delivery technology with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd., of Tokyo. Eurand will acquire worldwide pharmaceutical rights to an orally administered fast-melt tablet technology, as well as the manufacturing processes for the product. Eurand intends to market the product in combination with Microcaps, its taste-masking technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Evotec OAI AG, of Hamburg, Germany, and Euroscreen SA, of Brussels, Belgium, cross-licensed patents relating to Euroscreen's AequoScreen technology and Evotec's Vlip technology. Evotec also will have access to Euroscreen's GPCR (G protein-coupled receptor) reagents - including cell lines, membrane preparations and functional analyses using AequoScreen. Evotec also may develop aequorin assays to pursue its own research programs, while the agreement permits Euroscreen to use Vlip for its research and commercial applications as well. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Forbes Medi-Tech Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, reported that dosing of subjects has started in the Phase II trials of its cholesterol-lowering drug, FM-VP4. The study is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter while final Phase I results pertaining to FM-VP4's safety profile are anticipated later this month. The Phase II trial consists of four groups of 25 hypercholesterolemic volunteers. The desired effect is a reduction in total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol from the baseline measurement after four weeks of treatment. FM-VP4 is an amphipathic analogue of phytostanols.

• Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., entered a collaboration with the diagnostics division of Bayer HealthCare LLC, a member of the Bayer Group, of Leverkusen, Germany, to identify pharmacogenomic markers of drug safety and efficacy. Genaissance will receive funding to apply its HAP technology to Bayer's clinical samples. Bayer will receive exclusive rights to develop and market diagnostic tests based on the results of the collaboration. Genaissance will receive unspecified royalties and rights to perform these diagnostic tests internally. There are other unspecified mutual royalty provisions for any pharmaceutical drugs derived from the cooperation.

• GeneProt Inc., of Geneva, signed an agreement with Serono SA, also of Geneva, under which Serono will test a set of data-mined polypeptides and proteins discovered and synthesized chemically by GeneProt. Serono has an option to obtain an exclusive license to any of the polypeptides and proteins supplied by GeneProt under the agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Geron Corp., of Menlo Park, Calif., reported research data showing that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can be used to produce blood-forming cells at efficiencies comparable to human cord blood and mobilized peripheral blood. Geron said the hESC-derived hematopoietic cells not only have potential application in hematopoietic transplantation therapies, but they also could be used to prevent immune rejection of transplanted cells derived from hESCs. At the same time, Geron licensed from two research institutions intellectual property rights for the hematopoietic cells and the approach of using them to achieve immune tolerance to hESC-derived transplants.

• High Throughput Genomics Inc., of Tucson, Ariz., reported the availability of Pentadot Plus. The Pentadot is designed to enable researchers to rapidly and accurately quantify RNA expression levels in cells treated with potential new drugs, the company said. It is based on HTG's ArrayPlate technology, which allows researchers to simultaneously measure RNA expression levels in hundreds of active genes and by extension, gain information about gene expression and protein function.

• Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG, of Munich, obtained from Incyte Genomics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., a license to patents directed at animal genetic modification. The license provides Ingenium increased freedom to market in the U.S. its INGENOtyping technology, a method for producing murine models with subtle gene alterations for use in drug discovery and development. Ingenium said that in less than four months INGENOtyping could produce a series of murine models, including knockouts and models with increased or reduced gene activity. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Durham, N.C., filed with the SEC a shelf registration statement to allow it to issue shares of common stock, from time to time, in an aggregate amount of up to $100 million. Inspire said the nature and terms of any offering would be established at the time of sale.

• Locus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Blue Bell, Pa., entered a research collaboration to develop compounds for agricultural crop protection with DuPont Crop Protection, a unit of DuPont, of Wilmington, Del. Locus will apply its computational technology to discover and develop small-molecule compounds that have activity against key protein targets identified by DuPont. Also, Locus will obtain exclusive rights to such targets for human therapeutic uses. Locus will receive reimbursement of research costs, as well as undisclosed milestone and royalty payments from DuPont. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

• MelTec GmbH, of Magdeburg, Germany, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology in Sankt Augustin, Germany, signed a collaborative agreement to develop an information technology platform for the management and interpretation of high-throughput experiments analyzing protein networks of whole cells in situ, also known as topological proteomics, or toponomics. MelTec generates continuously large data sets to decipher the toponome of cells and tissues by tracing out and interpreting the context of proteins in cells.

• Microbia Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., reported publication in the February 2003 issue of Nature Biotechnology demonstrating advances in its ability to improve the properties of microbial cells for biomanufacturing pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. Microbia described a method for rapidly identifying genes required for the production of industrial molecules in microbes, shedding light on the best route to optimize a cell's metabolic potential to increase productivity and yield of drugs and chemicals manufactured on an industrial scale.

• Morphotek Inc., of Exton, Pa., entered a collaborative agreement to use Morphodoma technology belonging to Centocor Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, of New Brunswick, N.J., to develop high-titer cell lines for the commercial manufacturing of an undisclosed therapeutic antibody. Morphotek will receive an undisclosed up-front research payment and research milestones upon achievement of program goals. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

• Nastech Pharmaceutical Co. Inc., of Bothell, Wash., reported positive results of its investigational nasal dosage form of sumatriptan to treat migraine pain in comparison to nasal and oral formulations of the marketed product Imitrex. The investigational formulation showed a significantly higher peak concentration and almost double the amount of the active ingredient sumatriptan in the blood during the first 20 minutes compared to the marketed nasal product (both comparisons p<0.05). The non-blinded, Phase I crossover, pharmacokinetic, safety and tolerance study involving 12 healthy male volunteers resulted in no serious adverse events. Non-serious adverse events were mild and resolved without medical intervention and with no lasting effects.

• RxKinetix Inc., of Louisville, Colo., began patient enrollment in a Phase II trial of its RK-0202 compound to treat oral mucositis, a common, painful and debilitating side effect of cancer treatment. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, which will include about 100 U.S. patients, is designed to demonstrate that RK-0202 is well tolerated and can reduce the incidence and severity of oral mucositis in patients undergoing radiotherapy for head and neck cancer.

• Sangamo BioSciences Inc., of Richmond, Calif., entered an agreement to provide its zinc finger DNA-binding protein transcription factors for use in the research and drug discovery program of Purdue Pharma LP, of Cranbury, N.J. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Syn X Pharma Inc., of Toronto, said it is collaborating with H.M. Dosch, at the Hospital for Sick Children, to bring to market a therapy to prevent the onset of Type I diabetes. Through an ongoing relationship since the company's inception in 1997, Syn X and Dosch discovered that a very early target of diabetic autoimmunity is not the insulin producing beta-cell, but a fine layer of nervous system tissue that surrounds those cells. Using a vaccine-type approach to alter autoimmunity against the pancreatic nervous system cells, the research resulted in a reduction in the development of diabetes in mice predisposed to the disorder. The research was reported in the February 2003 edition of Nature Medicine.

• Theratechnologies Inc., of Montreal, entered a research and assignment agreement for a peptide that could have applications in diabetes with researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and at the University of Turin in Italy. Theratechnologies, which said it now owns all commercial rights to the peptide, discovered jointly by the two researchers, has filed an international patent application for the compound and thus will hold full rights to its intellectual property. As part of the agreement, which involves no up-front payments, Theratechnologies will pay undisclosed royalties should a product be commercialized.

• V.I. Technologies Inc., of Watertown, Mass., filed with the SEC a registration statement for a proposed offering of its common stock with a maximum value of about $20 million through the distribution of subscription rights to all its shareholders. Record-date shareholders will receive 0.87 subscription rights for each share of common stock that they own, entitling them to purchase shares of Vitex common stock representing about 19.8 million shares. Holders who exercise their basic subscription right will have oversubscription rights to purchase any unsubscribed shares. The exercise price will be $1.02 per share, the same pricing in a $4 million Phase III milestone investment commitment made by Pall Corp., of East Hills, N.Y.

• Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., was notified by Nasdaq that, in accordance with the terms of the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel decision dated Dec. 16, the company had complied with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(2)(A) as of Jan. 13. As such, the company was afforded an additional 180-day grace period to evidence compliance with the $1 minimum closing bid price requirement, or until July 10, 2003.

• Xtrana Inc., of Broomfield, Colo., said it filed an answer and affirmative defenses to the lawsuit filed by Trinity Biotech plc, of Dublin, Ireland. Xtrana also filed a countersuit against Trinity seeking $57 million in actual and punitive damages for alleged tortuous interference with prospective economic advantage, breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and declaratory judgment as a result of Trinity's attempt to avoid its contractual obligations to Xtrana by instituting litigation to force Xtrana to renegotiate the terms of the sale of its hemostasis business.