¿ Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., reported record results for the fourth quarter and the year 2000. The company reported more than $200 million in total revenue for the year, based largely on the shipment of more than 200,000 GeneChip arrays and the sale of more than 150 GeneChip systems. The fourth quarter was the company's second consecutive profitable quarter. Total revenue for the fourth quarter was $59.4 million, a rise of 70 percent over the same period in 1999. For the year, revenue increased 84 percent over 1999, totaling $200.8 million. Product sales for the year rose 77 percent, totaling $173.5 million. Affymetrix's stock (NASDAQ:AFFX) rose 11 percent on the earnings report Tuesday, closing at $68.062, up $6.625.

¿ AnorMED Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said it closed its offering of 1.5 million shares at C$17 per share for proceeds of C$25.5 million (US$16.88 million). The company now has 25.49 million shares issued and outstanding. AnorMED said it will use the proceeds to fund research and development in its chemokine receptor program. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 24, 2001.)

¿ Antares Pharma, of Minneapolis, completed the private placement of $7 million in common shares with banks and institutional investors. The private placement financing remains open until Feb. 15, and conversations continue with additional potential investors. Funds from the financing will be used, the company said, to further its drug delivery technology development. Antares develops, commercializes and markets delivery solutions including needle-free and mini-needle injector systems, gel technologies and transdermal products.

¿ BTG International Inc., of Philadelphia, said it and The Generics Group, of London, licensed a patent portfolio in electronics and the life sciences to Aura Oncology Systems Inc. BTG said the license could lead to a bio-chip technology that could assist in cancer diagnosis and oncologics development. Financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ Cell Therapeutics Inc., of Seattle, said researchers presented preliminary data at a symposium sponsored by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer that indicated the company's investigational paclitaxel/polyglutamate polymer therapeutic, PG-TXL, is well tolerated at doses more than 150 percent greater than the current approved dose of Taxol. In a 10-patient study investigators reported antitumor activity and no severe nerve damage.

¿ Collgard Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., of Newton, Mass., signed a second collaborative and licensing agreement with the Mayo Clinic to further develop Collgard's lead candidate, Halofuginone, a coronary restenosis treatment. Financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ Digene Corp., of Gaithersburg, Md., received expanded funding for its Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. That contract is to develop next-generation tests for diagnosis of herpes simplex virus. The initial grant for $750,000 was awarded in June 1998, and the expansion will add about $320,000 in incremental funding. Digene will apply its Hybrid Capture technology, capable of ultra-sensitive, high-throughput DNA diagnostic testing, to the diagnostic tests.

¿ Enzo Biochem Inc., of Farmingdale, N.Y., said it achieved the first successful autologous stem cell gene therapy conducted in HIV-infected adults. The company reported the engraftment of autologous transduced CD34+ cells and continued expression of anti-HIV-1-antisense gene in HIV-1-infected individuals. The stem cell gene therapy was a part of a Phase I trial of HGTV43, Enzo's HIV-1 gene medicine product.

¿ Enzon Inc., of Piscataway, N.J., said licensing partner Schering-Plough Corp., of Madison, N.J., submitted a biologics license application to the FDA for PEG-Intron (peginterferon alfa-2b) Powder for Injection for use in combination therapy with Rebetol (ribavirin, USP) capsules for treatment of chronic hepatitis C in patients not previously treated with interferon alfa who have compensated liver disease and are at least 18 years of age. The FDA granted marketing approval for PEG-Intron as a monotherapy for treatment of chronic hepatitis C in that patient population in January. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 23, 2001.)

¿ Genset SA, of Paris, said the Feb. 6, 2001, issue of the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published preclinical results for Famoxin, the company's lead anti-obesity product. The results indicate that administration of the candidate in a population of massively obese mice consuming high-fat diets caused significant weight reductions without altering food consumption. Famoxin is a recombinant protein based on the active portion of a naturally occurring serum protein, Acrp30. Genset's shares (NASDAQ:GENXY) rose 15 percent on the news, or $2.375, to close Tuesday at $17.812.

¿ Genzyme Transgenics Corp., of Framingham, Mass., said it does not expect to complete its intended re-acquisition of rights to recombinant human antithrombin III (rhATIII). The company announced that intention in November. Control of the rhATIII development program will instead remain with the ATIII joint venture, ATIII LLC, which said it no longer expects to actively pursue additional development of the compound for heparin resistance in patients about to undergo cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. The joint venture was formed for the compound's development by Genzyme Transgenics and Genzyme General, also of Framingham. Genzyme Transgenics said the level of expense and time involved in developing additional data required by the FDA isn't justified by the potential market size of the indication.

¿ Gryphon Sciences Inc., of South San Francisco, and Geneva Proteomics Inc., of Evanston, Ill., entered a collaborative agreement for chemical synthesis of proteins identified by proteomic analysis. Geneva Proteomics will manufacture proteins it identified using its parallel high-throughput proteomics analysis technologies using Gryphon's chemical protein synthesis technologies. Financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ ImClone Systems Inc., of New York, commenced patient treatment in a Phase II clinical study of its lead anticancer agent, IMC-C225, in combination with the chemotherapeutics carboplatin and paclitaxel in patients with newly diagnosed non-small-cell lung carcinoma. The monoclonal antibody is designed to block epidermal growth factor receptor. The compound also is in Phase II studies in combination with standard therapies for the treatment of refractory colorectal carcinoma, refractory head and neck carcinoma and pancreatic carcinoma.

¿ Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., said research in a rhesus monkey model of sexual transmission of HIV indicates a vaginal microbicide the company is developing protects against viral infection. Most animals treated with the microbicide, PRO 2000, remained uninfected and healthy following exposure to a highly infectious dose of an HIV-like virus compared to untreated animals, the company said. Complete findings from the study will be presented at the 8th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Chicago, which runs through Thursday.

¿ Large Scale Biology Corp., of Vacaville, Calif., and ProdiGene Inc., of College Station, Texas, entered a collaborative alliance for the development and large-scale manufacture of therapeutic antibodies using Large Scale's biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Owensboro, Ky. Financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ Lexicon Genetics Inc., of The Woodlands, Texas, granted Immunex Corp., of Seattle, a multiyear, non-exclusive sublicense for use of its gene targeting technology for Immunex internal research. Lexicon will receive annual license fees, technology usage fees and milestone payments from Immunex on products that benefit from the technology. Further financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ Medarex Inc., of Princeton, N.J., said Centocor Inc., of Malvern, Pa., filed an investigational new drug application for the study of a fully human antibody product licensed from Medarex for the treatment of inflammatory disease. The antibody was developed using Medarex's HuMAb-Mouse technology.

¿ NeoPharm Inc., of Lake Forrest, Ill., entered a lease for a 35,500-square-foot research and development facility in Waukegan, Ill. The facility will be used to enhance the company's basic research and to advance new product candidates.

¿ NovaScreen Biosciences Corp., of Hanover, Md., entered a multiyear agreement covering access to ID Business Solutions Ltd., of Guildford, UK, ActivityBase software environment, co-development and application optimization software modules. The collaboration calls for the integration of the ActivityBase platform into NovaScreen's screening operations, and for the testing and optimization of iDiscovery, a new web-based data-reporting tool developed by ID. Financial terms of the collaboration were undisclosed.

¿ Protogene Laboratories Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., and University Health Network, of Toronto, entered a collaboration to allow UHN to use Protogene's fully customizable oligonucleotide DNA microarrays. Researchers with UNH will use Protogene's arrays to validate the arrays in gene expression studies. Financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Bethesda, Md., signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the National Institutes of Health for thymosin beta 4, a potential wound-healing therapeutic. RegeneRx will make milestone payments and royalties on commercialized products in return for the exclusive worldwide rights.

¿ Telik Inc., of South San Francisco, and Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho Co. Ltd., of Nagoya, Japan, extended their research collaboration a second time. The extension calls for a $2.25 million research payment to Telik, which will use its TRAP chemogenomics drug discovery technology to identify and optimize compounds for agreed-upon disease targets in inflammatory disorders and diabetes. Sanwa takes exclusive Asian commercialization rights to the compounds, and Telik will keep rights for commercialization in the U.S. The companies will share revenues from other markets.

¿ The Center for Biomedical Inventions at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, of Dallas, calls the launch of its first technology partnership a milestone in its efforts to help build a biomedical industry in North Texas. The licensing agreement with Eliance Biotechnology, of Dallas, grants the company exclusive development rights for Expression Library Immunization, a technology for large-scale genetic screenings the center said will reinvent vaccine development. Further financial details were undisclosed.

¿ Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Durham, N.C., said a study of its Phase I/II dioxolane guanosine reverse transcriptase inhibitor, DAPD, for treatment of HIV indicates the compound has a positive pharmacokinetics profile and is well tolerated. A Phase I/II open-label, dose-escalating trial indicated the compound was rapidly absorbed and converted into DXG, a potent inhibitor of HIV transcriptase.