¿ 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, completed a round of financing for $14.9 million, the company's second. The funding is earmarked for development of its programs in malaria, stroke and asthma using its proprietary virtual high-throughput screening technology. The company also plans to expand its pipeline with three additional projects next year. London venture capitalist 3i led the financing, and was joined by BioM AG, of Martinsried; Bayern Kapital, of Landshut, Germany; tbg, of Bonn, Germany; Beteiligungsgesellshaft der Deutschen Wirtschaft mbH, of Frankfurt, Germany; and Mulligan Beteiligungs GmbH, of Hamburg, Germany.

¿ Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., of San Diego, completed enrollment in a Phase II/III study of LiquiVent, the company's perflubron intrapulmonary agent for treatment of acute lung injury. The multisite, 311-patient study, the company said, is the largest ever of a liquid breathing agent.

¿ Angstrom Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, received a $510,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Cancer Institute for the development of A36, a urokinase plasminogen activator receptor antagonist. Angstrom will use the grant to evaluate the compound's pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties in addition to its antitumor activity to determine the compound's suitability as a clinical candidate.

¿ Avax Technologies Inc., of Kansas City, Mo., said data from preclinical studies of its thymidine kinase suicide gene program for graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) indicated that treatment with Avax's thymidine kinase system controls GVHD in animal models, improves bone marrow transplant success and enhances animal subject survival. The data were published in the Dec. 11, 2000, issue of Human Gene Therapy.

¿ Biota Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, in collaboration with Glaxo Wellcome plc, of London, launched the influenza therapeutic Relenza in Japan. Japan represents about 20 percent of the world pharmaceutical market. Relenza is approved and marketed in 48 countries around the world, including the U.S. and Europe

¿ Bone Care International Inc., of Madison, Wis., completed a public offering of 2.3 million shares at $16 each for proceeds of $36.8 million. The offering was led by Prudential Vector Healthcare Group, of New York, and co-managed by U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc., of Minneapolis, and Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., of Milwaukee. BCI focuses on discovery and development of vitamin D hormone therapies for secondary hyperparathryroidism in patients with kidney disease, osteoporosis, psoriasis and cancers of the breast, colon and prostate.

¿ Diversa Corp., of San Diego, entered a discovery collaboration with Glaxo Wellcome plc, of London, for pharmaceutical identification from Diversa's recombinant multigene PathwayLibraries. The nonexclusive research agreement calls for joint research to identify novel small molecules from PathwayLibraries, molecules for which Glaxo will receive exclusive worldwide rights. Financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ EntoMed SA, of Strasbourg, France, raised $17.5 million in a private placement led by Apax Partners & Co., of Munich, Germany. New investors included Sofinov, the venture capital arm of the Bank of Quebec, and Auriga Ventures, of Paris. Other investors included Atlas Ventures, of Boston; CDC Innovation Genavent, of Paris; and Oxford BioScience Partners, of Costa Mesa, Calif.

¿ Galenica Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Frederick, Md., entered an agreement with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the preclinical evaluation of Galenica's immunomodulator (adjuvant) technology for the development of a tuberculosis vaccine. The agreement will evaluate a vaccine formulation of Galenica's lead adjuvant, GPI-0100.

¿ GenSci OrthoBiologics Inc., of Irvine, Calif., a subsidiary of GenSci Regeneration Sciences Inc., said a federal district court in Los Angeles ruled in a Markman hearing that specific patent terms in the patent infringement suit between GenSci and Osteotech Inc., of Toronto, were consistent with the claims in the disputed patents. The case will now proceed with summary judgement motions and, possibly, trial.

¿ Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., and partner F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., of Nutley, N.J., received regulatory approval for the neuraminidase inhibitor Tamiflu in Japan. Tamiflu was approved in the U.S. in 1999.

¿ Glaxo Wellcome plc and SmithKline Beecham plc, both of London, said their proposed merger will become effective pending U.S. and UK regulatory clearances, on Dec. 27, with the offering of shares of GlaxoSmithKline on the London Stock Exchange and ADRs on the New York Stock Exchange. The companies still need to clear the merger with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which requires SB to divest itself of the anti-emetic product Kytril and the antiviral products Famvir and Vectavir/Denavir. A UK High Court hearing of the petition to sanction the merger is scheduled for Dec. 20.

¿ Luminex Corp., of Austin, Texas, and Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., of Hercules, Calif., entered a strategic partnership to commercialize a drug discovery system based on Luminex's LabMAP technology. Bio-Rad will market a system that incorporates Luminex's microsphere-based assay and reader technology and Bio-Rad application software and reagent kits. Financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ MediGene AG, of Munich, Germany, initiated a multicenter Phase II trial of Etornoxir in treatment of congestive heart failure. The main objectives of the 160-patient, dose-ranging trial are evaluation of efficacy and dosing.

¿ NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Salt Lake City, and partner SmithKline Beecham plc, of London, began clinical testing of calcilytics for treatment of osteoporosis. NPS earned a $1 million milestone payment with the initiation of testing.

¿ Oncosis Inc., of San Diego, received a four-year, $6.7 million fast-track Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop Photosis technology, an automated, laser-based cell treatment system. A portion of the grant will allow the company to extend its preclinical non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cell purging studies into clinical trials.

¿ Ortec International Inc., of New York, released the results of its preliminary analysis of its pilot diabetic ulcer trail. That analysis showed that in 12 weeks, 56 percent of patients treated with composite cultured skin achieved total wound closure compared to 29 percent of patients who achieved the same result with standard care.

¿ Paradigm Genetics Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., discovered and validated its 100th novel herbicide target for high-throughput screening in its $40 million research partnership with Bayer AG, of Leverkusen, Germany. Bayer uses the most promising validated targets in Paradigm-produced high-throughput assays to identify new herbicides.

¿ Protalex Inc., of Albuquerque, N.M., raised $500,000 through a private placement of its common stock. Protalex focuses on the discovery of bioregulators to modulate disease processes.

¿ Sequenom Inc., of San Diego, and Hitachi Ltd., of Tokyo, entered an alliance to distribute Sequenom's Mass-ARRAY systems in Japan. Financial terms of the distribution agreement were undisclosed.

¿ Southern Biosystems Inc., of Birmingham, Ala., entered an agreement with Alcon Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Fort Worth, Texas, to develop controlled-release products for ophthalmic indications. Alcon gets exclusive access to SBS's microencapsulation technology with the deal. Financial terms were undisclosed.

¿ Spotfire Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and Proteome Inc., of Beverly, Mass., integrated their services. The collaboration allows mutual customers to access and analyze data from Proteome's BioKnowledge Library using Spotfire.net, Spotfire's web-based decision analytics software.

¿ The Institute for Viral Pathogenesis, of Kansas City, Kansas, said a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases demonstrates that multiple sclerosis patients exhibit a higher incidence of human herpesvirus-6. The study found cells actively infected with HHV-6 in eight of 11 patients with MS, and that the incidence of active HHV-6 infections was 67 percent in patients with MS, compared to no infection in control subjects.

¿ Unigene Laboratories Inc., of Fairfield, N.J., received about $1.05 million from the sale of a portion of its unused New Jersey net operating loss carryovers. The sale comes under a state tax benefit transfer program for emerging technology and biotechnology companies administered by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

¿ University of California campuses created the Institute for Bioengineering, Biotechnology and Quantitative Biomedical Research, of San Francisco. The institute, a joint partnership of three campuses, will focus on integrating physical, mathematical and engineering sciences to create new techniques for attacking seemingly unapproachable biological problems.