¿ Axys Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, said it is relocating its oncology genomics operations from San Diego to South San Francisco. It also said it is discussing with interested parties the disposition of its positional cloning and related technology programs, the completion of which is expected in 60 days. As a result of those moves Axys expects to save $17 million per year starting next year, while reducing its burn rate to the low $20 million range.

¿ Cell Genesys Inc., of Foster City, Calif., said it developed a third-generation lentiviral gene delivery system with an improved safety profile for patients with hemophilia and other patients at risk for HIV infection. The data were published in the August issue of the Journal of Virology.

¿ Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., and NeXstar Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Boulder, Colo., said stockholders of both companies approved their merger. NeXstar received $550 million of Gilead stock in the transaction, which was disclosed March 1. The combined company will operate under the Gilead name, and Gilead¿s board of directors will remain in that position. (See BioWorld Today, March 2, 1999, p. 1.)

¿ Structural Bioinformatics Inc., of San Diego entered into its second collaboration with BioChem Pharma Inc., of Laval, Quebec, to generate and optimize lead compounds for the treatment of human viral infectious disease. SBI will work with BioChem Pharma scientists using SBI¿s protein modeling DynaPharm and CombiLib technologies to identify and optimize lead molecules based on chemical scaffolds to accelerate clinical candidate selection, produce back-up chemical series and generate a broad patent position relating to the selected target.