• ARC Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, and the University of British Columbia entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement for the development and commercial sale of a class of anti-inflammatory compounds. The agreement will provide intellectual property in the development of ARC's anti-inflammatory program. In exchange, ARC will provide the university with milestone and royalty payments in addition to equity in the company. ARC said the licensed anti-inflammatory compounds may be useful in a number of related diseases, including surgical adhesion disease, arthritis and psoriasis.

• Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said its anemia product candidate AP22594 - to be taken as a pill by patients once or twice a month in place of frequent protein injections - produces therapeutically effective amounts of the hormone erythropoeitin (EPO) more than four years after one-time injection in monkeys of Ariad's patented gene complex. Throughout the period, the amount and timing of in vivo EPO release were controlled by administration of the small-molecule drug, and the potency of the product candidate did not decline. AP22594 continues to be given chronically to the monkeys. Ariad's stock (NASDAQ:ARIA) rose 33.1 percent Friday, or 77 cents, to close at $3.10.

• Celgene Corp., of Warren, N.J., said the first peer-reviewed data of Revimid (CC-5013) in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma were published in the Nov. 1, 2002, issue of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology. The article, titled "Immunomodulatory Drug CC-5013 Overcomes Drug Resistance and is Well Tolerated in Patients with Relapsed Multiple Myeloma," reported data from a Phase I/II study of Revimid. The data demonstrated that 17 of 24 patients, or 71 percent, experienced at least a 25 percent reduction in paraprotein, a measure of tumor burden. Revimid is an orally available compound that affects multiple pathways and multiple targets, the company said.

• Cephalon Inc., of West Chester, Pa., said it would build its new headquarters in the commonwealth and expand its work force by creating at least 650 new jobs over the next five years, according to Gov. Mark Schweiker. He added that Cephalon, which employs about 1,600 people worldwide, would invest $100 million in Pennsylvania.

• Exact Sciences Corp., of Maynard, Mass., entered a collaboration with Kenna Technologies Inc., of West Chester, Pa., to identify and validate specific targets that may be useful in the early detection, staging and monitoring of several common cancers. It will focus on Exact Sciences' DNA Integrity Assay and the relationship of DNA integrity to the development of cancer. Kenna will employ its in silico model, BioFusion, and knowledge system, KnowledgeFusion, in the cell cycle to derive a biological understanding and explanation for the escape from apoptosis as exemplified by high-integrity DNA. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Genaera Corp., of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., said a grant of $1.1 million was awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense, Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, to Mitchell Sokoloff of the University of Chicago School of Medicine. The grant was awarded for the first clinical trial of squalamine in the treatment of prostate cancer. The Phase II trial is designed as an open-label, randomized study to evaluate the activity and tolerability of squalamine in conjunction with anti-androgen therapy in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy. Genaera's squalamine, an anti-angiogenic, is the first clinical drug candidate in a class of naturally occurring, pharmacologically active, small molecules known as aminosterols, the company said.

• Neose Technologies Inc., of Horsham, Pa., amended its shareholders rights plan to permit its largest shareholder, Eastbourne Capital Management LLC, of San Rafael, Calif., to acquire additional Neose common shares in order to increase its ownership position up to 25 percent. As of Oct. 18, Eastbourne held about 19.9 percent of Neose's common shares, and otherwise would have been limited to 20 percent under the prior shareholders rights plan.

• Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Baltimore, submitted to the FDA an amendment to its supplemental new drug application for Gliadel Wafer seeking approval for use during initial surgery for high-grade malignant glioma. The amendment contains already-reported data from a recently completed analysis of long-term survival, which demonstrated that the product reduces the risk of dying over three to four years by 27 percent (p=0.017, unstratified log-rank test). The sNDA, submitted by Guilford in April 2001, resulted in a not-approvable letter from the FDA the following March, indicating concerns regarding the survival benefit associated with treatment during initial surgery. Gliadel Wafer is approved to treat recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, a common form of malignant brain cancer. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 20, 2002.)

• Incara Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said its wholly owned subsidiary, Incara Cell Technologies Inc., completed the sale of substantially all assets and certain related liabilities of its liver cell and liver stem cell program, for net proceeds of about $2.8 million, to Vesta Therapeutics Inc., a portfolio company of Toucan Capital Corp., of Bethesda, Md. The divestiture, which reduces Incara's debt by about $400,000, allows it to focus on its catalytic antioxidant programs and reduce its operating expenses by about 40 percent. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 23, 2002.)

• Lexicon Genetics Inc., of The Woodlands, Texas, said it discovered a target for the development of drugs to reduce formation of blood clots without increasing bleeding, a common side effect of therapies such as aspirin used to reduce the risk of heart attacks. Inhibiting in mice the enzyme LG101 resulted in a 60 percent reduction in blood clot formation with no observable, undesirable side effects. Lexicon advanced LG101 into its pharmaceutical division to develop drugs to prevent thrombosis.

• Repligen Corp., of Waltham, Mass., reported at the International Meeting for Autism Research, a satellite meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, results of a 12-patient trial showing that secretin is active in the central nervous system and that it potentiates activity in the amygdala, a region of the brain involved in social integration and implicated in autism. The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial revealed a significant activation (p=0.001) of the right amygdala by secretin when the subjects viewed pictures of a fearful face compared to both the placebo group and the baseline response to the pictures in the secretin group. But there was no difference in amygdala activation when subjects viewed pictures of neutral or happy faces. Failure to activate the amygdala when viewing fearful faces is a characteristic of people with autism and patients with amygdala damage. Secretin remains in a Phase III program for autism.

• Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tustin, Calif., said it resolved with the FDA concerns surrounding its proposed Cotara Phase III trial to treat brain cancer. Though Peregrine declined to provide exact details as to the resolution, it said the FDA's issues centered on the adequacy of clinical trial design and that the agency wanted to ensure design prior to approving pivotal studies. Peregrine said the FDA's formal decision is unlikely to be received before the end of the year. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 14, 2001.)