¿ Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cheshire, Conn., released results of a preclinical study of a new class of therapeutic antibodies that accelerated the return to normal platelet levels in an animal model of bone marrow toxicity commonly found in cancer patients. Preclinical studies showed that platelet counts were increased 60 percent in agonist antibody-treated animals as compared to baseline (p<.0001). The lead candidate agonist antibody was designed to bind to and stimulate the c-Mpl receptor with the same strength as the body¿s own natural platelet hormone, thrombopoietin. This new class of antibodies lacks any protein sequences related to native thrombopoietin.

¿ Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., of San Diego, received $3 million from Baxter Healthcare Corp., of Deerfield, Ill., as part of Baxter¿s commitment to the development of Oxygent, an intravascular oxygen carrier. The payment was part of a six-year arrangement in which manufacturing process equipment owned by Alliance has been purchased by Baxter and leased back to Alliance. Under the lease, Alliance will have exclusive use of the equipment and rights to repurchase it at any time. In May 2000, Baxter obtained an exclusive license to sell and distribute Oxygent in the United States, Canada and Europe, with an option to manufacture the product. Baxter purchased $20 million of Alliance preferred stock in May 2000 and agreed to invest an additional $30 million in 2001. Following Wednesday¿s $3 million payment, Baxter must invest an additional $23 million in Alliance prior to the end of September in order to maintain its rights to the product.

¿ Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, closed its previously announced 3.5-million-share private placement for proceeds to the company of about $35 million. Shares were priced at $10 each, and an existing shareholder sold 600,000 additional shares in connection with the placement. Lehman Brothers, of New York, acted as sole placement agent for the transaction. The company said it would use proceeds from the placement to provide support for its AC2993 (synthetic exendin-4) and AC2993 LAR development programs, in addition to support for Symlin (pramlintide acetate), Amylin¿s treatment for diabetic patients who use insulin for which a new drug application was filed in December. (See BioWorld Today, May 15, 2001.)

¿ Ardent Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., appointed Richard Kent president and CEO. Kent will also join the board of directors. Kent comes to Ardent from GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, but with U.S. operations in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park, where he was senior vice president, global medical affairs and chief medical officer.

¿ ConjuChem Inc., of Montreal, filed a preliminary prospectus with the securities commissions of each Canadian province relating to a proposed offering of common shares consisting of both a treasury and secondary component coming from four early stage institutional investors. The lead underwriter of the offering is Yorkton Securities. Other members of the underwriting syndicate are BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. Terms of the proposed offering were not disclosed.

¿ Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., appointed Spiros Jamas president, CEO and director. Most recently, Jamas was president, CEO and director of Repair Inc., of Boston.

¿ Genaera Corp., of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., said its product, squalamine, was granted orphan drug status by the FDA for the treatment of ovarian cancer. Squalamine is in clinical development for the treatment of solid tumors in conjunction with chemotherapy. Genaera is planning a registration trial in combination with carboplatin in recurrent and resistant ovarian cancer patients.

¿ Genzyme General, of Cambridge, Mass., said it reported research and preclinical data showing the potency and specificity of its lead small-molecule substrate inhibition compound, Genz-78132, compared with first-generation compounds under investigation elsewhere. The data were presented at the International Conference on Prospects in the Treatment of Rare Diseases, in Trieste, Italy. Genz-78132 is being developed to treat lysosomal storage diseases, including Gaucher¿s disease and Fabry disease.

¿ HemaSure Inc., of Marlborough, Mass., completed the sale of its assets, except for cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, to Whatman Bioscience Inc., a subsidiary of Whatman plc, of London. The companies signed the sales agreement in February. The transaction consists of a $10 million payment and a reimbursement amount that covers the net change in cash from the ongoing operations of the company¿s business from Nov. 1, 2000, through the closing date. HemaSure also will get 4 percent royalties up to $12 million in sales of filtration products using its technology.

¿ Incyte Genomics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and Iconix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., plan to collaborate on the development and commercialization of a next-generation chemogenomic information product. Under the agreement, Incyte will market ChemExpress, Iconix¿s integrated chemogenomic system of data, data management tools, and bio- and chemo-informatics data-mining software. Iconix will integrate Incyte¿s LifeExpress Lead database into ChemExpress under an exclusive license from Incyte. The collaboration will enable the development of the first multiarray platform gene expression information product available to the pharmaceutical industry, the companies said. As part of the agreement, Incyte will make an equity investment in Iconix. Financial terms were not disclosed.

¿ Lexicon Genetics Inc., of The Woodlands, Texas, and scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester said they discovered the function of a gene called Ini-1, a new tumor-suppressor gene related to head and neck cancer. The team found that reducing the gene¿s function by one-half resulted in head and neck tumor formation in genetically engineered knockout mice, and said it established a causal link between gene loss and cancer formation. The work was reported in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology.

¿ Remedyne Corp., of Goleta, Calif., closed a $3.2 million private placement of Series A preferred stock. The financing was led by several investors. Remedyne is focused on developing vaccines and antibiotics to treat infectious diseases.

¿ Phage Therapeutics International Inc., of Bothell, Wash., said seven buyers agreed to invest an additional $1.5 million in the company in exchange for 2,142,857 units. Each unit consists of one share of the company¿s common stock and one common stock purchase warrant. Each one and a half warrants entitle the holder to purchase on additional share of common stock at an exercise price of 70 cents per share.

¿ Quark Biotech Inc., of Pleasanton, Calif., and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, of Cleveland, formed a multiyear research collaboration focused on genomics and developing a powerful genomic technology platform for the creation of new medicines. As part of the collaboration, QBI will move its headquarters to the Cleveland Clinic campus.

¿ Transgenomic Inc., of Omaha, Neb., completed the acquisition of Annovis Inc., of San Jose, Calif. The merger was executed by the payment of approximately 1.9 million shares of Transgenomic¿s common stock worth about $18.9 million and $500,000 in cash. Annovis is a privately held specialty chemicals company. Transgenomic provides research tools to the life sciences industry.

¿ Tripos Inc., of St. Louis, and Lipha SA, of Lyon, France, completed the initial phase of their discovery research agreement. At its UK-based chemical research facility, Tripos successfully employed proprietary cheminformatics and discovery technologies in the anticipated timeline to identify and synthesize novel drug candidates against a Lipha target. Under the terms of the contract, Tripos received a technology license fee and payments for its research and discovery services.