¿ Affymetrix Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., entered into an EasyAccess Silver agreement with the Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Division of the Warner-Lambert Co., of Morris Plains, N.J. Parke-Davis will gain preferential access to Affymetrix¿s standard and custom GeneChip arrays, instrumentation and software to monitor gene expression.¿ Boston Life Sciences, of Boston, raised $8.5 million in two private placements. The first consisted of convertible preferred stock, which raised $4.4 million. In addition, $1.6 million was held in escrow and should be released to the company soon. The total of $6 million raised in this placement may be converted into 1.538 million shares of common stock on a fully converted basis. Another placement of $2.5 million was completed in which the company issued 647,668 shares of common stock and 97,150 warrants to purchase common stock. Josephthal Lyon & Ross Inc., of New York, managed the placement.¿ Dow AgroSciences LLC, of Indianapolis, and Proteome Systems Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, formed a multi-year research agreement in the application of proteomics to plant products. Among the research efforts are a plan to characterize a new class of proteins being developed by Dow and one to identify new enzymes and novel pathways in the biosynthesis of plant products. Terms were not disclosed.¿ Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., of East Hanover, N.J., filed two separate lawsuits. The first, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the FDA did not follow its own regulations in approving SangStat Corp.¿s generic form of cyclosporine, SangCya (cyclosporine oral solution). Novartis contends that SangCya and its own Neoral are different dosage forms and should not be automatically substituted for each other. The second suit, in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, was filed against SangStat and alleges infringement of a Novartis patent covering cyclosporine technology. SangStat says it will contest the suit. Novartis is an affiliate of Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland. SangStat is based in of Menlo Park, Calif.¿ PathoGenesis Corp., of Seattle, received clearance in Canada and Argentina to market TOBI (tobramycin solution for inhalation), which is indicated for treating cystic fibrosis patients with chronic pulmonary Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. Those are the first markets for TOBI outside the U.S., where the drug was introduced in January 1998.¿ Salix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., signed a letter of intent to negotiate a license agreement with Fujirebio Inc., of Tokyo, under which Salix would obtain exclusive rights to Lafatudine in most countries outside Japan. The drug is a third-generation ulcer treatment being developed in Japan by Fujirebio.¿ SuperGen Inc., of San Ramon, Calif., said oncologists at a conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, reported that the small-molecule purine analogue drug Nipent, already marketed to treat hairy cell leukemia, is effective in treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia, low-grade non-Hodgkin¿s lymphoma and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Data on Nipent from 25 centers were presented at the conference, the company said.