• British Biotech plc, of Oxford, UK, was advised by the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel that the company satisfied the panel's requirements for continued listing of British Biotech American depositary shares on Nasdaq. The company received the Nasdaq staff determination indicating that its ADSs were subject to delisting on Nov. 28. That advisement came as a result of the company failing to meet the minimum bid requirement of $1 for continued listing.

• Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc., of Hingham, Mass., entered into a licensing agreement with Tufts University in Boston to further develop an antibody for neutralizing specific toxins from the E. coli bacteria that cause a life-threatening and largely untreated illness, hemolytic uremic syndrome. HUS, a rare condition primarily affecting children under 10, destroys red blood cells, causes damage to the lining of blood vessel walls and, in severe cases, induces kidney failure and death. There is currently no known treatment for the disease, the company said.

• Deltagen Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., added two customers to its DeltaOne program. The new customers are Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bridgewater, N.J., and Euroscreen SA, of Brussels, Belgium. DeltaOne is one of the company's drug discovery tool and services product lines that Deltagen will exploit in order to reach the company's goal of break-even cash flow operations by the end of 2003.

• DNA LandMarks Inc., of St. Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Quebec, and Paradigm Genetics Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., entered into a letter of intent comprising DNA Landmark's acquisition of ParaGen, the plant genotyping business of Paradigm Genetics. The ParaGen business covers marker discovery, marker-assisted breeding and variety identification. The transaction is expected to close in February. Financial details were not disclosed.

• The Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, Calif., was awarded by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., a two-year, $200,000 grant to pursue research to develop new ways to use existing drugs against AIDS. Specifically, the grant will be used to develop a model system for multidrug therapy designed with existing drugs to combat drug resistance in HIV. The research also may hold promise in combating drug resistance in other infectious diseases caused by bacteria and parasites, as well as some cancers.

• LION bioscience AG, of Heidelberg, Germany, announced several changes to its executive management and supervisory board. SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira has stepped down from LION's supervisory board to devote more time to his private foundation, the company said, and it will recommend the former head of Microsoft Germany, Richard Roy, as his successor. Further, with the closing of LION's drug discovery business in December, Chief Scientific Officer Jan Mous has left the company, though he will continue to act as a consultant to LION. LION's shares (NASDAQ:LEON) gained $1.54 Friday, or 31.1 percent, to close at $6.49.

• Marligen Biosciences Inc., of Jamesville, Md., was awarded federal funding for a Small Business Innovative Research grant to develop methods for studying transcription factors. The technology developed under the award will enable the multiplex screening of clinical or research samples to obtain profiles of transcription factor activity and to study protein-DNA interactions that are central to the complex control mechanisms that regulate all cellular processes.

• Mera Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, entered into a binding commitment to acquire privately held botanical drug developer Ancile Pharmaceuticals Inc., also of San Diego. Ancile shareholders will receive shares of Mera common stock equal to about 35 percent of Mera in exchange for their Ancile shares. Ancile will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Mera. As a result, Mera will acquire rights to Ancile's drug portfolio, which includes ANPH 101, a potential therapy for sleep maintenance disorders. Ancile has completed all patient work in a Phase II proof-of-efficacy trial, with results expected in the second quarter. That 120-patient registration study was conducted to confirm the efficacy of ANPH 101 demonstrated in a prior Phase II trial, which showed statistically significant and clinically relevant improvement in a number of sleep parameters.

• The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., released a multidisciplinary, multiagency research plan for autoimmune disease that the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association is calling a major milestone for the 50 million Americans, primarily women, who suffer from such diseases. The research plan, which NIH will formally present to Congress after the summer recess, tackles autoimmunity from four areas, including the burden and cause of autoimmune diseases, their diagnosis, treatment and prevention, as well as training, education and information.

• Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Raleigh, N.C., adopted an updated stockholders rights plan in connection with its reincorporation in Delaware last year. Its board authorized the redemption, effective Jan. 20.

• Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston entered a three-year, $13.7 million agreement to investigate the molecular basis of diabetes and obesity. The research also aims to develop therapies for the metabolic diseases.

• United Therapeutics Corp., of Silver Spring, Md., said its Remodulin was approved for inclusion in the Federal Supply Schedule of the General Services Administration. The company said the approval provides all necessary federal and state approvals for the purchase and reimbursement of Remodulin in the U.S.