¿ Cyclacel Ltd., of Dundee, Scotland, said its lead anticancer product, CYC202, an orally administered small-molecule inhibitor of cyclin dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), has entered two Phase Ib trials, following the successful completion of a Phase Ia single-dose pharmacokinetic study. CYC202 met all the primary objectives of the Phase Ia study, being orally available and well tolerated, with biodistribution that was consistent with the preclinical results. CYC202 is an isomer of roscovitine, a compound that is used in academic research as a reference cell cycle inhibitor. Full results of the Phase Ia trial will be presented by the founder and CSO of Cyclacel, David Lane, at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Miami on Oct. 30.

¿ Genomatix Software GmbH, of Munich, Germany, released to academics its ¿MatInspector professional¿ software for identification of transcription factor binding sites in genomic DNA. The access for academic institutions is free of charge, Genomatix said. A five-year-old precursor version is available in the public domain. Genomatix does not want academic researchers¿ results to suffer because they use the old version, a spokesman said. In addition, the company expects today¿s users in academia to be industry customers in the future.

¿ November AG, of Erlangen, Germany, and MediRox AB, of Linkvping, Sweden, entered an agreement granting exclusive rights to MediRox for further development and marketing of a system developed by November for self-control of an anticoagulation treatment called novi quick. November would get a percentage of any sales. In addition, November expects to receive a significant share of the Swedish hemostasis specialist, the company said.

¿ Modex Therapeutics Ltd., of Lausanne, Switzerland, reported positive data from a Phase II trial of its skin replacement product, EpiDex, in 77 patients with hard-to-heal skin ulcers. EpiDex achieved similar levels of efficacy as the current treatment, split skin mesh grafting. Thirty-three percent of patients who received EpiDex displayed complete wound closure after 12 weeks, as compared to 41 percent of subjects who underwent the surgical procedures. Seventy-eight percent of all patients receiving EpiDex showed significant wound closure, compared with 72 percent of all split skin mesh grafted patients. EpiDex also was well tolerated and safe. The company said pharmacoeconomic assessments conducted at two centers indicated that EpiDex treatment may be at least 30 percent cheaper than the surgical procedure.

¿ Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, announced positive interim results in a 12-patient Phase I/II trial of its anticancer vaccine TroVax in colorectal cancer. The vaccine was safe and well tolerated and induced an immune response. TroVax is a viral vector that delivers the gene for OBA1, a tumor-associated antigen that is present on the surface of a range of tumors. In preclinical studies expression of OBA1 induced an antitumor response, breaking immune tolerance and protecting against further tumor growth.

¿ Qiagen NV, of Venlo, the Netherlands, and Kreatech biotechnology BV, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, agreed to a deal granting Qiagen an exclusive license to Kreatech¿s Universal Linkage System (ULS) labeling technologies and products in combination with Qiagen¿s resonance light scattering products licensed from Genicon Biosciences, of San Diego. ULS allows the attachment of detectable tags to purified nucleic acids. In addition, Qiagen acquired nonexclusive rights to develop and sell ULS products for labeling and detecting nucleic acids as well as proteins in microarray applications for the life science research markets.