• Aphton Corp., of Miami, sold about 1.5 million shares of registered common stock for $2.375 each, totaling about $3.6 million. Aphton said it would use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including funding its ongoing clinical trials and operations while Aphton negotiates with one or more strategic partners. Life Science Group Inc. acted as placement agent.

• Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bridgewater, N.J., said the FDA approved Taxotere (docetaxel) for the first-line treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer. Taxotere is the first new treatment option for the first-line treatment of NSCLC patients in more than four years, the company said.

• Forest Laboratories Inc., of New York, said the FDA will require the company to conduct additional clinical trials in order to approve the dosing regimen of lercanidipine requested by the company, which is the regimen approved in 60 countries where it is approved. Forest received an approvable letter for the drug on Aug. 1, 2002, in which the FDA requested additional information. Forest officers met with the agency on Dec. 4 to review its proposed response to the approvable letter. Forest said the requested trials would likely delay the approval and launch of the drug by a minimum of two years.

• GTC Biotherapeutics Inc., of Framingham, Mass., began a safety and efficacy study of its recombinant human antithrombin III to treat patients with a hereditary deficiency of the antithrombin blood protein. GTC said the open-label, single-arm trial would be conducted in at least 12 patients in high-risk situations to develop thromboses, adding that it expects to complete the study next year. It is expected to be the final clinical trial before submission for European registration in the first half of 2004.

• Invitrogen Corp., of San Diego, reported the retirement of its founder, chairman and CEO, Lyle Turner, effective Jan. 1, and the company's plan to initiate a search for a new CEO. Simultaneously, the company said it appointed James Glynn to the position of president and chief operating officer and Bradley Lorimier as chairman. Turner founded Invitrogen in 1987.

• NovaScreen Biosciences Corp., of Hanover, Md., said the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a unit of the National Institutes of Heath in Bethesda, Md., accepted its NBC 59310 and NBC 72210 compounds into the institute's cocaine treatment program. The institute will sponsor funding for preclinical and clinical development of the compounds, discovered through use of NovaScreen's Reactivity Selectivity Mapping Database technology, after they show promise in treating addiction, the company said.

• SuperGen Inc., of Dublin, Calif., said clinical studies suggested the anticancer drug decitabine is effective in elderly patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome. Of 169 patients from a series of Phase II studies, an overall response rate of 68 percent was observed. A significant increase in platelets also was observed in 42 percent of the patients after one cycle of therapy, and 63 percent after two cycles. The results were being presented at the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Philadelphia.