* Cypros Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., raised $4.7 million in new capital through the exercise of 856,027 of its redeemable Class B warrants at $5.50 each. There were previously 4.67 million of the Class B warrants outstanding. After the exercise, Cypros had $17 million in cash and 15.37 million shares outstanding.

* IGEN Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., launched its first product in a line of molecular biology testing products. It is for the detection and quantitation of residual DNA in biopharmaceutical products. The test is required by the FDA for all host cell recombinant DNA drugs and biologicals made for humans, to ensure purification processes are sufficiently removing "waste DNA."

* ImClone Systems Inc., of New York, acquired exclusive rights to a recently discovered protein that may play an important role in the early growth of cancers. The protein, referred to as VE-cadherin-2, is believed to enable the formation of a capillary blood vessel network in solid tumors, an essential step in the uncontrolled growth of malignancies. ImClone is developing antagonists to VE-cadherin-2 to inhibit tumor vascularization.

* Lark Technologies Inc., of Houston, launched a real-time detection system called Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction to address the needs of companies developing new pharmaceuticals, especially those based on gene therapy. The system increases the accuracy and sensitivity of quantitative DNA and RNA detection, giving scientists a new capability to measure previously undetectable gene expression events. It can be applied to gene therapy distribution and expression assays, drug response analysis, mutation analysis and expression system development.

* LXR Biotechnology Inc. has received permission from the FDA to conduct a pivotal clinical trial on its HK-Cardiosol, a heart preservation solution. The clinical investigations will proceed in at least four medical centers in the U.S. and two in Germany, with a minimum of 120 heart transplant recipients enrolled. The trial is expected to finish as early as the second quarter of 1999.

* Techniclone Corp., of Tustin, Calif., received the go-ahead from the FDA to begin Phase I trials with radioactive chimeric tumor necrosis therapy (TNT) for malignant glioma, the most common primary malignant brain tumor. TNT binds to the dead and dying cells at the core of the tumor and irradiates the diseased tissue from the inside out. The clinical trials, the primary site of which will be Emory University, in Atlanta, will assess the safety of TNT in patients planning to undergo surgical resection of a recurrent tumor.

* Tripos Inc., of St. Louis, signed a multiyear, international license agreement with the Parke-Davis division of Warner-Lambert Co., of Morris Plains, N.J., for Tripos' software. Under the agreement, Parke-Davis will expand its use of Tripos' drug discovery technology through a new flexible licensing system. The system allows allocation of software at each site that is consistent with the immediate research needs there.