* Chiron Corp., of Emeryville, Calif., acquired a non-exclusive license to Munich, Germany-based MorphoSys AG's HuCal, or human combinatorial antibody library, technology. Chiron will pay a license fee, and milestones and royalties on any antibody products resulting from the two-year deal.

* Demegen Inc., of Pittsburgh, received a $100,000 Small Business Innovative Research grant from the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, of Bethesda, Md. Demegen will use the grant to study the effectiveness of its compounds in treating multi-drug resistant bacterial infections in animal models.

* Digene Corp., of Charleston, S.C., reported that preliminary results from seven international cervical cancer screening studies supported the use of HPV testing as a new method for cervical cancer screening. The trials evaluated a screening for cervical cancer based on human papillomavirus (HPV) testing and the traditional Pap smear. Results showed that cervical screening using HPV testing detected approximately 90 percent of cervical cancer precursors while the Pap smear detected about 67 percent.