* Human Genome Sciences Inc., of Rockville, Md., said it received another 24,333 ordinary shares of Transgene SA, of Paris, following exercise of the overallotment option granted to underwriters of Transgene's simultaneous initial public offering on Nasdaq and France's Nouveau Marche. HGS received the additional shares to maintain its 10 percent interest in Transgene as part of an agreement licensing rights to 10 genes to the French firm for gene therapy. Transgene, which generated $57 million in its IPO, added another $8.6 million with exercise of the overallotment option. Underwriters in the U.S. were Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse First Boston and BancAmerica Robertson Stephens, all of New York. In France, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse First Boston, BancAmerica Robertson Stephens International, Credit Lyonnais and Lazard Capital Markets managed the offering. (See BioWorld Today, March 30, 1998, p.1.)
* Immunex Corp., of Seattle, agreed to pay $10 million to Hoechst Marion Roussel, of Frankfurt, Germany for rights outside the U.S. to Nuvance, an interleukin-4 receptor in clinical development for asthma, and three other interleukin (IL) receptors: IL-1 receptor Type 1, IL-1 receptor Type 2 and IL-7 receptor, all of which are in preclinical development. Hoechst also will receive royalties on the marketed drugs. Immunex already owns North American rights to the four molecules, which it developed. Hoechst was granted ownership outside North America as part of a 1990 agreement giving Immunex marketing rights to Leukine, a white blood cell booster, in North America.
* Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said data from a Phase II trial of Panretin capsules showed the drug improved the condition of patients with AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma. Ligand Pharmaceuticals will file a new drug application (NDA) for Panretin capsules for AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma in 1999. In addition an NDA for the Panretin gel will be filed soon.
* Nabi, of Boca Raton, Fla., entered a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Public Health Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, in order to determine the efficacy of Nabi-Civacir, a preparation of human polyclonal antibodies to hepatitis C virus for prevention or modification of the infection.
* Oceanix Biosciences Corp. of Hanover, Md., received a two-year $750,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Oceanix's prime therapeutic targets for this SBIR project are new antiboitics, particularly focusing on drug-resistant pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and anti-inflammatory drugs that act at certain receptor- or enzyme-mediated pathways.
* Seattle Genetics Inc., of Seattle, licensed monoclonal antibodies against cancer from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of New York, for a one-time undisclosed fee. The tumor targeting compounds include an immunotoxin Bristol-Myers was evaluating in clinical trials. Seattle Genetics is a start-up company founded by former Bristol-Myers scientists H. Perry Fell and Clay Siegall, both of whom have backgrounds in molecular immunology.
* T Cell Sciences Inc., of Needham, Mass., published a report that shows the company's lead complement inhibitor, TP10, improves the outcome in an experimental model of open heart surgery. The study was published in the April issue of Annals of Thoracic Surgery. In a test of pigs with artificially blocked arteries, those animals infused with TP10 had significantly larger amounts of live heart muscle in the area beyond their blocked arteries than those who didn't receive TP10. The drug is a soluble form of complement receptor 1, a naturally occurring protein found on blood cells.