• Biovation Ltd., of Aberdeen, UK, entered a research agreement with Viventia Biotech Inc., of Toronto, for Biovation to apply its DeImmunisation technology to a cytotoxic protein designed by Viventia. Biovation will receive fees for service and could earn license fees, milestone and royalties if the product goes into development. DeImmunisation increases the clinical potential of antibody and other protein therapeutics by substituting elements of the molecule that are likely to elicit an unwanted immune response.

• Cobra Biomanufacturing plc, of Keele, UK, agreed to manufacture ovine adenovirus for Mayne Pharma, of Melbourne, Australia. Mayne intends to use the adenovirus to deliver a cytotoxic. Cobra will supply material for preclinical and early stage trials and has an option to manufacture Phase III and commercial supplies of the product.

• The French Academy of Science has submitted a report on genetically modified plants to the French Minister of Research and New Technology, Claudie Haigneré, in which it recommends the "rational and cautious introduction of transgenic plants in agriculture on a case-by-case basis." Maintaining that GMOs did not pose any proven risk to human health, whether utilized for food production or to therapeutic ends, the academy's report recommends that the European Union lift the moratorium on the use of GM crops it imposed in 1999. Haigneré said she took a favorable view of the recommendations and was committed to supporting research in this area.

• Graffinity Pharmaceuticals AG, of Heidelberg, Germany, appointed Klaus Schollmeier as CEO, effective Jan. 1. Schollmeier most recently served as managing director of the health care and biotechnology group at ING-BHF Bank, part of ING Group Europe, based in Amsterdam. He earned his Ph.D. in biology at the University of Duesseldorf and previously held senior management positions at BASF Pharma. Graffinity, which was founded in 1997, has a chemical genomics platform that detects compound-protein interactions without the need to develop assays.

• Growcorp Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, launched a €25 million seed and venture capital fund - European Bioscience Fund I - that will target life sciences investment opportunities in Ireland and the rest of Europe. The fund also will be used to attract scientists and entrepreneurs working in the U.S. to Ireland. Co-investors in the fund are Enterprise Ireland, the state agency responsible for indigenous industrial development; Irelandia Investments Ltd., of Dublin, the investment vehicle of the Ryan family, founders of Ryanair plc, also of Dublin; and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

• HiberGen Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, said it granted Fermentas UAB, of Vilnius, Lithuania, a nonexclusive worldwide license to its proprietary genotyping technology SNaPIT for use in the development of genotyping kits for research applications. HiberGen will receive a license fee and royalties on resulting sales. The Irish firm is continuing to use the platform, which offers detection of SNPs and other DNA polymorphisms, to search for novel disease targets.

• Igeneon AG, of Vienna, Austria, started Phase I trials of two of its key cancer products. The first, IGN301, is a cancer vaccine. The Phase Ib study will be undertaken with the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center in Cleveland. The second, IGN 311, is a humanized antibody. In the second study, Igeneon will work with the Central Clinic in Augsburg, Germany. Both products target Lewis Y, a carbohydrate molecule that is frequently overexpressed in epithelial carcinomas.

• Lorantis Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, said it was making progress in its collaboration with PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, of Oxford, UK, to develop an allergy treatment based on Lorantis' Notch technology. Notch is a cell surface protein that has the ability to switch off an immune response to a specific allergen. Preclinical studies have started to deliver Notch therapy to antigen-presenting cells in the skin, using PowderJect's needleless powder injection system. Previous preclinical work has shown that a Notch stimulator/dust mite antigen combination delivered by PowderJect's system results in a significant modification of the immune response.

• Medivir AB, of Huddinge, Sweden, said it entered a three-year R&D collaboration with Paradigm Therapeutics Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, focused on the identification of novel protease targets and the discovery of protease inhibitor drugs. Medivir will supply its expertise in protease inhibitor drug discovery, which includes proprietary screening methods and protease inhibitor compound libraries, while Paradigm brings its bioinformatics, functional biology and drug target validation technologies to the table. The companies plan to identify and validate up to six novel protease targets and to develop small-molecule drugs that inhibit their activity. The disease indications were not disclosed.

• Metabometrix Ltd., of London, has developed a blood test it says can replace angiograms in the detection of atherosclerosis. The test involves measuring the magnetic properties of the blood sample by nuclear magnetic resonance and analyzing the response to detect abnormal patterns of signals that are associated with heart disease. Metabometrix, a recent spinout from Imperial College London, is developing the test and other applications of metabonomics, an emerging technology for generating, classifying and interpreting metabolic information obtained from biological fluids and tissues, using NMR. The technology can be used in diagnostics, as in the arteriosclerosis test, and is also relevant to drug discovery and development.

• Mologen AG, of Munich, Germany, announced positive results from a study of vaccinations against a tropical parasite that causes deadly diseases in both dogs and humans. Mologen cooperated with the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid, Spain, to examine the effects of MIDGE vaccinations against Leishmania infections. In experiments on mice, the MIDGE vaccination was as effective as the current best treatments and offered economic and safety advantages, Mologen said. Leishmania infections are primarily found in tropical regions, can be fatal and are increasingly found in conjunction with HIV infection. Mologen's vaccination would be the first against Leishmania.

• Munich Biotech AG, of Munich, Germany, was awarded a €1.4 million grant from the European Commission for a three-year project on antitumor angiogenesis. The work will focus on gene therapy to prevent new blood vessel formation (neovascularization) of tumors and to induce programmed cell death and necrosis in tumor blood vessels. In the project, the company will collaborate with the universities of Vienna, Helsinki and Groningen, as well as the Max-Planck Institute in Bad Nauheim, Germany, and the Mario Negri Institute in Milan, Italy.

• Purely Proteins Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, granted Cytomyx Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, a license to its TargetBasePlus database of genes and protein information for applications in the G protein-coupled receptor field. David Parry-Smith, chief information officer of Purely Proteins, developed TargetBase when he worked at Cambridge Drug Discovery Ltd. The database was spun out to Purely Proteins following the acquisition of CDD by Biofocus plc in June 2001.

• Transgene SA, of Strasbourg, France, signed an agreement with the International Aids Vaccine Initiative for the production of preclinical batches for the development of a new AIDS vaccine. The initial composition of the vaccine, as determined by the National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Diseases in the U.S., consists of an MVA (modified vaccinia ankara) vaccine vector carrying genes of the SIV virus, the equivalent in apes of HIV.