¿ Charles River Laboratories International Inc., of Wilmington, Mass., said it intends to file a registration statement with the SEC today for an underwritten offering of 8 million shares, with an overallotment option on another 1.2 million shares. Of the shares, 2 million will be offered by the company and the remainder will be offered by selling shareholders. Charles River provides research tools and integrated support services for drug discovery and development.

¿ Elite Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Northvale, N.J., said Elite Research Ltd., a joint venture between Elite and Elan Pharmaceuticals Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, initiated development of a second, undisclosed, product. Elite specializes in the development of delayed-, sustained-, targeted- and pulse-release formulations. The joint venture was formed in October 2000.

¿ Entelos Inc., of Philadelphia, developed a PhysioLab disease simulation system for Type II diabetes. The delivery marked a milestone in the company¿s partnership with the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute (PRI), a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, of New Brunswick, N.J. PRI now has access to the system through a three-year nonexclusive license agreement. The companies formed the collaboration last year. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 25, 2000.)

¿ Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, earned a milestone payment related to its partnership with Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, the pharmaceutical division of American Home Products Corp., of Madison, N.J., as a result of initiation of Phase III trials of TSE-424, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) in osteoporosis and hormone replacement therapy. Ligand in May disclosed data from a Phase II trial of TSE-424 that indicated the SERM is potentially more powerful and selective than raloxifene.

¿ Medarex Inc., of Princeton, N.J., announced terms for its $175 million principal amount convertible subordinated notes offering. The notes will bear a coupon of 4.5 percent, and initially are convertible into shares of Medarex at a ratio of 34.68 shares per each $1,000 principal amount of notes at $28.84 per share. The notes mature in July 2006, and the offering is expected to close Tuesday. Underwriters have been granted a 30-day option to purchase an additional $26.25 million principal amount of the notes to cover overallotments, if any. Medarex said it will use the funding for general corporate purposes. (See BioWorld Today, June 20, 2001.)

¿ Pharmacopeia Inc., of Princeton, N.J., said its software subsidiary, Accelrys Inc., will acquire privately held Synomics Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, for $4 million. Synomics focuses on integration software for life sciences research, and Accelrys focuses on bioinformatics, chemoinformatics and modeling software.

¿ ProSanos Corp., of La Jolla, Calif., and Management Science Associates Inc., of Pittsburgh, entered a strategic alliance to pursue biomedical informatics projects. Part of the alliance creates an advanced biomedical data center.

¿ Protein Design Labs Inc., of Fremont, Calif., reviewed three humanized antibodies for psoriasis at a satellite symposium on psoriasis in San Francisco. PDL presented information on daclizumab (Zenapax), a psoriasis maintenance therapy to prolong remission; Nuvion, an antibody directed at CD3, part of the T-cell antigen receptor complex; and its SMART anti-gamma interferon antibody, for which it plans to begin a Phase I/II trial soon.

¿ Rubicon Genomics Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich., appointed Thomas Collet president and CEO. Collet is a former general partner at Tullis-Dickerson & Co. Inc., a health care-focused venture capital fund. Rubicon is developing OmniPlex technology for DNA amplification and analysis.

¿ Scios Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., completed its public offering of 5.75 million shares at $21 per share for net proceeds to Scios of about $114 million. The offering includes an overallotment option for 750,000 shares. Proceeds are to be used for operating expenses, capital expenditures and working capital needs, including funding the launch of Natrecor (nasiritide), a recombinant form of human B-type natriuretic peptide for treatment of acute congestive heart failure. Scios filed for the offering late last month. (See BioWorld Today, May 31, 2001.)

¿ StemCells Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., said Millennium Partners LP, of New York, exercised an option to purchase 457,750 shares of StemCells for $2 million, about $4.37 per share. StemCells has received $1.5 million and will receive the remaining $500,000 upon effectiveness of a registration statement. Millennium also received a warrant to purchase up to 50,352 shares at $4.77 per share.

¿ Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, the pharmaceutical division of American Home Products Corp., of Madison, N.J., received a non-approvable letter from the FDA regarding its premarket approval application for a treatment for long-bone fractures using a recombinant human protein that induces bone growth, rhBMP-2/ACS. The letter cites the design of the pivotal study and the interpretation of the data by the company. Wyeth-Ayerst plans to meet with the FDA to discuss the concerns.