¿ AeroGen Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., initiated a Phase II study of its AeroDose insulin inhaler in diabetic patients. The studies in the U.S. and Europe are designed to evaluate the delivery and efficacy of inhaled insulin in Type II diabetes patients.

¿ Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Ltd., of Piscataway, N.J., and Cambridge University, of Cambridge, UK, entered a proteomics technology agreement granting the university access to APBiotech's integrated proteomics technology. The university will use the technology in its ongoing study of the Drosophilia and Arabidopsis thaliana proteomes.

¿ Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., completed its acquisition of Kinetix Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a deal valued at $170 million. The acquisition gives Amgen a pipeline of preclinical small-molecule kinase inhibitors. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 17, 2000.)

¿ BSD Medical Corp., of Berlin, said peer review of its clinical study of hyperthermia as a treatment for rectal cancer in The Lancet strengthens the company's case for the therapy. Results from the trial, a 358-patient, randomized Phase III study on patients with locally advanced tumors of the bladder, rectum and cervix, were published in The Lancet, Vol. 356, pp. 771-2.

¿ Cambridge NeuroScience Inc., of Norwood, Mass., shareholders approved the proposed merger with CeNeS Pharmaceuticals at a special meeting. CeNeS shareholders approved the proposed merger on Dec. 8, 2000, and the merger is expected to be completed by today.

¿ COR Therapeutics Inc., of South San Francisco, said 48-hour results from its ESPRIT study of Integrilin in nonemergency percutaneous coronary intervention indicated the treatment, administered in addition to PCI techniques, including the use of multiple intracoronary stents, reduced the combined incidence of death, myocardial infarction and the need for urgent repeat intervention or thrombotic bail-out therapy at 48 hours from 10.5 percent to 6.6 percent. COR said six-month data continues to be compiled, and it expects to release that data shortly.

¿ Diversa Corp., of San Diego, adopted a shareholders' rights plan. The plan aims to protect shareholders in the event that an unsolicited attempt to acquire Diversa is made. Diversa said the plan is intended to guard against abusive takeover tactics, and is not a response to a particular proposal.

¿ DuPont Co., of Wilmington, Del., plans to spin off its pharmaceuticals subsidiary, DuPont Pharmaceuticals, after a six-month review by the spin-off's newly appointed president, Richard De Schutter. De Shutter, the former CEO of G.D. Searle & Co., a unit of Pharmacia Corp., of Peapack, N.J., will succeed Nicholas Teti, whose retirement from the positions of president and CEO of the wholly owned subsidiary will become effective Dec. 31. DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles Holliday said the company will evaluate its options for the new pharma firm, including an initial public offering. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, of New York, will advise DuPont on the transaction. DuPont's pharmaceutical arm includes a variety of approved therapeutics such as the oral anticoagulant, Coumadin; Lodosyn and Sinemet CR, both Parkinson's disease therapeutics; Sustiva, an anti-retroviral AIDS treatment; and Innohep, used in conjunction with warfarin sodium for treatment of acute deep vein thrombosis. The company also has a broad early stage pipeline of drug candidates in development. Coumadin generates about $500 million in annual sales, and the company's drug business as a whole generated about $1.6 billion in sales in 1999, about 6 percent of DuPont's overall sales.

¿ Endologix Inc., of Irvine, Calif., said C.R. Bard Inc., of Murray Hill, N.J., elected not to exercise its option to acquire the remaining stock of Endologix. Bard will remain the exclusive distributor of Endologix's product in Europe and Australia. Endologix's lead products is an endoluminal graft for treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms. The company is currently conducting a Phase II trial of its PowerLink System.

¿ Genzyme Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., completed its acquisition of GelTex Pharmaceuticals Inc. GelTex shareholders who elected to receive stock will receive $22.59 in cash and .3813 of a share of Genzyme General for each share of GelTex in the $1 billion deal. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 12, 2000.)

¿ GPC Biotech AG, of Munich, and Aventis Pharma Drug Innovation and Approval, of Paris, entered a research collaboration aimed at identifying and validating interaction partners for an undisclosed Aventis target. Financial terms were not revealed.

¿ Heska Corp., of Fort Collins, Colo., entered a license agreement with Meiji Milk Products Co., of Tokyo, granting Meiji rights to Heska's Japanese cedar pollen allergens for manufacture and sales of therapeutics in Japan. Heska gets an unspecified up-front payment, minimum annual royalties and royalties on future product sales.

¿ ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Costa Mesa, Calif., said partner Schering-Plough Corp., of Madison, N.J., submitted a supplemental new drug application to market Rebetol (ribavivrin, USP) separately for use in combination with Intron A Injection (interferon-alfa 2b, recombinant) for treatment of chronic hepatitis C in patients with compensated liver disease naive to alpha interferon treatment or who have relapsed following alpha interferon therapy. Rebetol is approved in the U.S. for this indication as a component of Rebetron Combination Therapy, which includes both therapies.

¿ IntraBiotics Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bethesda, Md., said data from a Phase I trial of its Protegrin IB-367 in patients with cystic fibrosis supports the advancement of the program. The study established safe doses of Protegrin IB-367 aerosol and efficacy as an antimicrobial agent.

¿ Matrix Science Inc., of London, said Geneva Proteomics Inc., of Evanston, Ill., selected Matrix's Mascot protein identification software as the initial search engine for its industrial-scale proteomics factory in Switzerland. Mascot allows mass spectrometry data to be rapidly matched against protein or nucleic acid databases.

¿ Nycomed Amersham plc, of London, put off the initial public offering of its joint venture Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Ltd., of Piscataway, N.J., until February. The spin-off of about 10 percent of APBiotech was planned to go off before the end of the year. The company filed for the offering with the SEC on October 3. APBiotech makes gene sequencers and other genomics equipment. Nycomed owns 55 percent of APBiotech; Pharmacia Corp., of Peapack, N.J., owns 45 percent.

¿ OraPharma Inc., of Warminster, Pa., completed preclinical testing on its oral mucositis program. The company said the testing identified a lead compound, OC-1012, and supports an advancement into the clinic. Preclinical studies indicated that topical administration of OC-1012 significantly reduced the duration and severity of oral mucositis.

¿ Paradigm Genetics Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Prionics AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, extended their collaborative agreement for the co-development and co-marketing of blood-based diagnostics for rapid detection of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine encephalopathy in cattle. The companies will continue to share in development costs, and Paradigm will receive a royalty on any product developed from the collaboration.

¿ QLT Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, and partner CIBA Vision Corp., of Atlanta, the eye care division of Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, said the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Evaluation Agency recommended the granting of a marketing authorization for Visudyne therapy for choroidal neovascularization in patients with pathologic myopia. The EU Commission will make a final decision on the expanded indication for Visudyne in the next few months, QLT said.

¿ Tecan Group Ltd., of Hombrechtikon, Switzerland, will expedite the launch of its automated system to test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the European Union. The speeding of the process is due in part to the release of new guidelines for beef and beef products in the EU.