• Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said it discovered the first small-molecule chemistries that activate two G protein-coupled receptor targets, the NPFF and the MrG receptors, targets for which small-molecule drugs could represent a breakthrough to treat pain. Acadia said the lead chemistries broaden its therapeutic pain portfolio, which also includes ACP-102, a GPCR agonist scheduled to enter clinical development shortly to treat neuropathic pain in cancer patients, and preclinical compounds that target a subtype of the muscarinic receptors.

• Angiogenix Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., acquired Acclaim from NitrOSystems Inc. Acclaim is a nitrate in development for treatment of chronic angina and acute heart failure. Angiogenix focuses on developing products for peripheral and cardiac ischemia. Financial details were not disclosed.

• AnorMED Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, entered an agreement to license to Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging Inc., a unit of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of New York, its Hynic linker technology for the commercial development of products to be used for diagnostic medical imaging of cardiovascular diseases. AnorMED will receive a nonrefundable, up-front payment of US$100,000 as well as annual payments ending in 2007. AnorMED also would receive milestone payments upon U.S. approval of new drug applications as well as a royalty based on sales of products incorporating its technology.

• Cel-Sci Corp., of Vienna, Va., entered an agreement with the University of Arkansas to evaluate its CEL-1000 compound (previously called derG) for protection against chlamydia in a mouse and guinea pig genital model. Cel-Sci said CEL-1000 has shown high levels of protection against herpes simplex, malaria and cancer in animal testing. The agreement follows a recent expansion of the CEL-1000 program with the U.S. Naval Research Center doing work with the compound in malaria and two U.S. universities working with CEL-1000 in herpes. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• ChemBridge Research Laboratories LLC, of San Diego, entered a three-year discovery chemistry agreement with the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, an affiliate of Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland. ChemBridge will provide to the foundation and its affiliates, including Novartis AG, nonexclusive access to its GPCR-Targeted Library consisting of small molecules based on non-peptide chemotypes. The foundation will provide certain screening data to ChemBridge relating to the provided compounds, and the foundation has the ability to take advantage of additional hit-to-lead follow-up services provided by ChemBridge. Other terms were not disclosed.

• Chromos Molecular Systems Inc., of Burnaby, British Columbia, said its Agrisoma Biosciences Inc. subsidiary closed a private financing worth an undisclosed amount. Proceeds will be used to fund future operations and advance research and development programs at Agrisoma, which is focused on developing its chromosome-based gene transfer technology to enable the discovery and development of high-value traits in crops and enable the production of proteins in plant-based systems.

• Collgard Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., of Atlanta, said it is enrolling patients in a Phase II trial of Tempostatin (halofuginone hydrobromide) for the treatment of intermediate and high-risk recurring bladder carcinoma. The objective of the trial is to assess the tolerability and safety of oral administration of Tempostatin and to evaluate the ability of the agent to prevent the recurrence of bladder cancer in high-risk patients.

• Cypress Bioscience Inc., of San Diego, said its Milnacipran drug being evaluated to treat fibromyalgia syndrome was shown to provide statistically significant improvement of pain and fatigue symptoms in a preliminary analysis of its double-blind, placebo-controlled, flexible dose-escalation monotherapy Phase II trial. Of the 95 patients analyzed, 87 percent of those treated with milnacipran reported overall improvement, compared with 33 percent in the placebo group (p<0.001). Further, 36 percent of milnacipran-treated patients reported at least a 50 percent reduction in pain intensity, compared with 9 percent of placebo patients (p=0.030). In addition, milnacipran-treated patients showed significant improvements in fatigue and depressed mood. Cypress's stock (NASDAQ:CYPB) jumped 77.1 percent Tuesday, or $1.11, to close at $2.55.

• eXegenics Inc., of Dallas, elected Ronald Goode as its new chairman, a position formerly held by Gary Frashier, who had served on the board since 1999 and as chairman since 2000. Frashier will remain as a director, and Goode will continue as the president and CEO.

• Forest Laboratories Inc., of New York, said initial results from the first-ever U.S. clinical trial to evaluate a combination therapy for Alzheimer's disease were presented Monday at a meeting of neurology, psychiatry and pharmacology experts. The six-month study, which involved more than 400 patients diagnosed with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease, was designed to compare a treatment regimen of the investigational therapy memantine in combination with Aricept (donepezil), a widely used acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, to a regimen of donepezil and placebo. Results from the Phase III randomized trial showed that patients receiving a combination of memantine and donepezil performed significantly better than patients receiving the alternate therapy (p=0.0001). Patients taking the combination therapy also showed significantly less decline in activities of daily living (p=0.028), according to the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Inventory-Activities of Daily Living Assessment scale.

• Genzyme Biosurgery, a division of Genzyme Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., said doctors in Paris treated the first patient enrolled in a Phase II trial testing the safety and efficacy of cardiac myoblast cell transplantation, an experimental therapy designed to prevent the progression of heart failure in patients who have had a heart attack. The trial involves harvesting a patient's own skeletal muscle cells prior to bypass surgery through a small biopsy in the leg, multiplying the cells over the course of three weeks in the lab, and injecting them into a scarred region of the heart during a coronary artery bypass operation. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial will enroll up to 300 patients.

• Insert Therapeutics Inc., of Pasadena, Calif., appointed Leonard Borrmann president and CEO. He joins Insert from Maret Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newport Beach, Calif., where he led the company through a successful merger with Essential Therapeutics Inc. Previously, he was CEO of Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Francisco.

• Interleukin Genetics Inc., of Waltham, Mass., received notification from the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel that the panel denied its request for continued listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market and that its common stock was delisted effective Tuesday. The stock is eligible to trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol "ILGN." Interleukin previously had reported that it had received notification of its noncompliance with Nasdaq's $1 minimum bid price requirement and $2.5 million minimum stockholders' equity requirement.

• Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said Targretin reduced the development of estrogen receptor-negative mammary tumors in mice that were genetically modified to develop breast cancer. The study was published by Baylor College of Medicine and Ligand researchers in Cancer Research. The FDA in December 1999 approved Targretin capsules with once-daily oral administration for the treatment of cutaneous manifestations of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma in patients who are refractory to at least one prior systemic therapy.

• Lynx Therapeutics Inc., of Hayward, Calif., and Molecular Engines Laboratories SA, of Paris, reported publication in the Nov. 12, 2002, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of a study on tumor reversion and the genes associated with the process. The findings disclose key genes that allow a cancer cell to quit its malignant state and lose its aggressive phenotype. Lynx's MPSS and Megasort gene expression profiling technologies were used to identify the genes associated with tumor reversion from human leukemia and breast cancer cell lines.

• Medarex Inc., of Princeton, N.J., and Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, filed in Europe an application to begin a clinical trial of HuMax-Inflam, also known as MDX-018, to treat an undisclosed autoimmune disease. Both parties plan to share all development costs and worldwide rights to HuMax-Inflam, except for Asia, which is held by Medarex. Separately, Medarex restructured certain aspects of its collaboration with Kyto Biopharma Inc., of West Palm Beach, Fla. Kyto granted to Medarex a right of first negotiation to license human monoclonal antibody products developed under the collaboration and issued 800,000 of its common shares to Medarex, which now owns about 19 percent of Kyto.

• Medicure Inc., of Winnipeg, Manitoba, entered into a collaboration with a University of Montreal research group run by Stephen Hanessian, a member of Medicure's scientific advisory board. He is directing a team in the synthesis of sodium/hydrogen exchanger inhibitors designed in conjunction with Medicure's drug discovery team, potentially resulting in research to lead Medicure to new cardiovascular therapeutics.

• Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc., of Bothell, Wash., reported positive results from a Phase II trial of intranasal morphine gluconate, its patented product for treatment of breakthrough pain in opioid-tolerant cancer patients. Results indicate that intranasal morphine gluconate was rapidly absorbed and produced meaningful pain relief. There was a statistically significant difference between baseline pain intensity and post-dose pain intensity (p<0.05).

• Orchid BioSciences Inc., of Princeton, N.J., said its president and CEO, Dale Pfost, resigned, effective immediately, to pursue other professional opportunities. Pfost had served in those roles since November 1996, and served as chairman from November 1996 to this September. In addition, Orchid said Donald Marvin resigned his positions as senior vice president and general manager.

• Paladin Labs Inc., of Montreal, reached an agreement to return the Canadian marketing and distribution rights for DepoCyt to SkyePharma plc, of London. Paladin will receive certain cash considerations, which will be applied against the remaining carrying value of the DepoCyt license and a receivable from SkyePharma. The resulting balance will be recorded as an immaterial, one-time gain by Paladin in its fourth quarter. Paladin acquired the exclusive Canadian marketing and distribution rights for DepoCyt in July 2000.

• Pharmexa A/S, of Horsholm, Denmark, said it has made progress in its collaboration with H. Lundbeck A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark. The companies said proof of concept in animals was achieved for the AutoVac technology as it relates to Alzheimer's disease. Lundbeck has decided to take the project into the early development stage. Pharmexa receives an undisclosed milestone payment for the achievement and the focus of the collaboration is now officially Alzheimer's disease. The companies formed the agreement in April 2000.

• Proteome Systems Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, and Nestle, of Lausanne, Switzerland, agreed to collaborate on a glycoproteomics program to analyze the sugars attached to proteins in milk. Proteome Systems will apply its platform of glycoproteomic analysis, GlycomIQ, to analyze the sugars on the milk proteins. Financial details were not disclosed.

• QRxPharma Pty. Ltd., of Boston and Brisbane, Australia, completed a $5 million Series A preferred stock financing led by Innovation Capital. Other investors included Nanyang Ventures, SpringRidge Ventures and UniSeed. QRx, formed to commercialize technology from University of Queensland in Brisbane, said it would use the funds to complete Phase II studies of its lead product to treat pain, and to progress into the clinic two other products to treat bleeding disorders.

• Sigma-Genosys, a unit of Sigma-Aldrich Corp., of St. Louis, said it expanded its relationship with Compugen Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel, through the launch of three genome oligonucleotide collections for gene expression profiling. The expanded offerings of zebrafish and B. subtilis represent about 16,000 zebrafish and 4,000 B. subtilis oligonucleotide probes (65mer), respectively. In addition, an E. coli library will represent the entire K12 genome as well as two sequencings of the pathogenic 0157 strain. The products are manufactured by Sigma-Genosys and designed by Compugen.

• Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., said it will establish an Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine. The institute is expected to bring together basic and clinical scientists to focus on stem cell biology and cancer biology to develop treatments for cancer and other diseases, such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and cardiovascular diseases. An anonymous donor has committed $12 million in seed money for the institute.

• Syn X Pharma Inc., of Toronto, and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) reported the signing of a license agreement that provides Syn X exclusive rights to develop and commercialize two patents filed by Adolfo de Bold and UOHI relating to the utility of natriuretic peptides in cardiovascular disease. The agreement will both expand the company's patent portfolio and support its commercialization position with respect to its diagnostic for congestive heart failure.

• Targeted Genetics Corp., of Seattle, presented an updated summary of data generated by its nonviral gene delivery program. Results demonstrated a significant reduction in tumor growth in animal disease models of metastatic cancer when using LPD-PEG, a gene delivery method that is based on delivering condensed DNA encapsulated in lipids that can be absorbed through the cell membrane. The findings showed a two- to eightfold reduction in tumor size compared with controls in an animal model of metastatic breast cancer using intravenous administration of LPD-PEG to deliver either the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene (HSV-1 TK) or the interferon beta gene. The studies showed that when delivering the HSV-1 TK gene, there was a statistically significant enhancement of survival in animals receiving LPD-PEG formulations containing folate compared with animals receiving LPD-PEG without folate (p=0.027).

• Transgene SA, of Strasbourg, France, entered a collaborative agreement with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York to manufacture preclinical lots of IAVI's constructs for a form of vaccine. The constructs, developed at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in Bethesda, Md., consist of modified vaccinia ankara vectors carrying genes of the simian immunodeficiency virus, which in monkeys is the equivalent of HIV. Transgene is entitled to receive payment of an undisclosed amount from IAVI.

• ZLB Bioplasma Inc., of Glendale, Calif., said the FDA accepted for review the company's supplemental biologics license application for a liquid formulation of immune globulin intravenous. The liquid formulation would extend ZLB's Carimune immune globulin intravenous product line. Carimune is used for replacement therapy in patients who do not produce adequate levels of immunoglobulin.