¿ Evotec OAI, of Hamburg, Germany, signed a four-year contract agreement with the pharmaceutical company Pharmacia Corp., of Peapack, N.J., to provide Pharmacia with high-quality libraries for pharmaceutical screening. The contract extends an original agreement Evotec signed in 1998. Evotec will receive fees for services and milestone payments for each product that moves into clinical trials. Evotec would get further milestones based on products reaching certain sales goals. Other such chemistry services Evotec extended in the first half of 2001 included agreements with Pfizer Inc., of New York, and Curis Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. The company also signed a new agreement with Hoffmann-La Roche, of Basel, Switzerland. An agreement with Bayer AG, of Leverkusen, Germany, ended successfully, Evotec spokeswoman Anne Hennecke said. Chemistry services in the first half of 2001 represented EUR20.3 million of Evotec¿s EUR26.3 million in sales in the first half of 2001.

¿ MediGene AG, of Martinsried, Germany, said the pharmaceutical company Schering AG, of Berlin, confirmed its intent to amend the license and collaboration agreement with MediGene for the joint development of a vaccine for treatment of precancerous cervical lesions. The amendment would remove MediGene¿s reimbursement obligations to Schering under the current contract and adjust future milestones and royalties payable by Schering to MediGene.

¿ November AG, of Erlangen, Germany, acquired a stake of 24.95 percent in ACGT ProGenomics AG, of Halle, Germany, in a share deal estimated at EUR1.6 million (US$1.45 million). The companies plan to jointly develop and improve therapeutic drug delivery systems and develop a method for detecting BSE in living animals. This project will be supported by grants from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, november said.