¿ Atrix Laboratories Inc., of Fort Collins, Colo., named David Bethune vice chairman and chief executive officer on an interim basis. Bethune, former president of American Cyanamid's Lederle Laboratories division, is a member of Atrix's board of directors.

¿ Biotrin International Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, said its parvovirus B19 enzyme immunoassay tests were approved by the FDA for pregnant women suspected of exposure to parvovirus B19 and for Fifth Disease, a common childhood illness primarily characterized by "slapped cheek" rash.

¿ Incara Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., received a $1.5 million milestone payment from Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J. The milestone was obtained for demonstrating that compounds synthesized in the collaboration demonstrated specified in vitro and in vivo activity in both resistant and sensitive bacterial strains. The companies are collaborating on discovering and developing a class of vancomycin analogues.

¿ Incyte Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., expanded its agreement with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., of Collegeville, Pa., to include access to the LifeSeq Gold assembled database, the LifeArray expression analysis software and a bioinformatics collaboration. In addition, Incyte could receive future milestone payments and royalties on sales of products developed with Incyte technology and database information. Financial terms were not disclosed.

¿ Inex Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, obtained receipts for a final prospectus filed Aug. 5 in connection with the company's $7.9 million (C$12 million) special warrant financing. (See BioWorld Today, June 1, 1999, p. 1.)

¿ Matrix Pharmaceutical Inc., of Fremont, Calif., finished enrollment in a Phase II trial of IntraDose (cisplatin/epinephrine) Injectable Gel in colorectal cancer metastatic to liver. Thirty-one patients were enrolled in the study, which is being conducted at medical centers in the U.S., UK, France and Germany. Treatment and follow-up will continue into next year.

¿ Metabolex Inc., of Hayward, Calif., and Iconix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., formed a research collaboration that will focus on target validation and small-molecule drug discovery for genes that may influence diabetes. Iconix will apply its assay platform and chemical diversity library to identify small-molecule modulators of potential diabetes-related genes identified by Metabolex. Financial terms were not disclosed.

¿ QLT PhotoTherapeutics Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Ciba Vision Corp., of Atlanta, filed with the European Medicines Evaluation Agency for approval of Visudyne for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration. The specific indication is for the treatment of AMD in patients with predominantly classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization, the most aggressive cause of vision loss associated with the disease. The companies expect to file with the FDA later this month. Ciba is the eye care unit of Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland.

¿ Therapeutic Antibodies Inc., of London, submitted a product license application and establishment license application to the FDA for DigiTAb, which is designed to treat the effects of digoxin toxicity. The filing triggers a payment from Altana Inc., of Mellville, N.Y., the company's U.S. marketing partner.