* Cellegy Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, began clinical trials of its transdermal testosterone gel for treating male hypogonadism. The company said it plans to enter Phase III trials by the end of the year.

* ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New York, filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Serbia, and the State Health Fund of Serbia. ICN is seeking more than $500 million as a result of the armed governmental takeover of ICN's Yugoslav subsidiary, ICN Yugoslavia, on Feb. 6. ICN's suit charges that, in late 1998, the Yugoslav government secretly engineered the illegal transfer of the majority of ICN's ownership interest to the State Health Fund of Serbia. ICN is seeking damages for the financial loss of its majority ownership of ICN Yugoslavia, including the loss of future revenues from ICN Yugoslavia and other damages.

* Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp., of San Diego, is raising approximately $100 million by selling $300 million aggregate principal amount at maturity of its 20-year convertible zero coupon subordinated notes through a private placement. The securities were priced with a yield to maturity of 5.5 percent per year, which will result in gross proceeds of some $100 million. The company granted to the initial purchaser a 30-day option to purchase an additional $45 million of notes to cover over-allotments, if any. The offering is expected to close Feb. 16. Idec expects to use the money for general corporate purposes, including funding U.S. licensing applications for IDEC-Y2B8 immunotherapy. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 4, 1999, p. 1.)

* Incyte Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and Icagen Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., entered into a research and development collaboration to create the world's first ion channel gene expression microarray. Incyte will contribute data from its LifeSeq gene sequence and expression database and microarray technology, and Icagen will add its ion channel technology. Ion channels are proteins found on the cell membrane which regulate the flow of ions in and out of the cell, and affect all physiological processes in the body. Financial terms were not disclosed.