* Alpha-Beta Technology Inc., of Worcester, Mass., said a plannedinterim safety review of a Phase III trial of Betafectin resulted in therecommendation to continue the trial, which is assessing the productfor prevention of infection in gastrointestinal surgery patients.

* Cell Therapeutics, of Seattle, closed the second and final tranche of$2 million in its private placement of $17 million in Series Aconvertible preferred stock. The company is developing drugs thatselectively regulate the metabolism of phospholipids in intracellularsignaling pathways relevant to cancer and immune and inflammatorydiseases.

* CV Therapeutics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., said its initial publicoffering will entail 2.5 million shares with an estimated price range of$12 to $14. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 2, 1996, p. 1.)

* F. Hoffmann-La Roche, of Basel, Switzerland, and Affymetrix Inc.,of Santa Clara, Calif., signed an agreement under which Roche willuse the Affymetrix GeneChip technology to monitor gene expression.Affymetrix will supply Roche with instruments and arrays containingH. influenzae and S. pneumoniae genes selected by Roche.

* Genetics Institute Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said it formed acollege scholarship program for students with hemophilia B. Thenews was disclosed at the 48th annual meeting of the NationalHemophilia Foundation in San Diego.

* Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., began human clinicalstudies of PMPA, a antiviral drug candidate based on nucleotides.PMPA is being developed to treat HIV.

* Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Baltimore, declared a 3-for-2stock split. Shareholders will get one additional share for every twothey own. Post-split the company will have about 14 million sharesoutstanding.

* Immunomedics Inc., of Morris Plains, N.J., said the Committee forProprietary Medicinal Products unanimously rendered a positiveopinion for the approval of LeukoScan in Europe. The diagnosticimaging product is used to detect sites of infection or inflammation.

* North American Vaccine, of Beltsville, Md., and AbbottLaboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill., signed a definitive agreement forAbbott to market and distribute North American Vaccine'sdiphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine. The agreementprovides for a total investment of up to $42 million by Abbott.

* Paracelsian Inc., of Ithaca, N.Y., said results of a five-monthfollow-up for patients treated in a safety study of PN27,1 (AndroCar)showed patients continued to tolerate the drug. Some of the cancerpatients also experienced improvements in symptoms.

* SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Mateo, Calif., said thymosinalpha 1 achieved statistically significant results in the treatment ofchronic hepatitis B in a randomized, controlled study conducted inItaly. Results are reported in the current issue of Hepatology.

* Sequana Therapeutics Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., completed itsacquisition of NemaPharm Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., which wasdisclosed in July. Sequana plans to use NemaPharm's technology todevelop animal models of human disease.

* Sheffield Medical Technologies Inc., of New York, through itssubsidiary Ion Pharmaceuticals Inc., entered into an option agreementwith Alpha Therapeutic Corp., of Los Angeles, for Alpha tocommercialize and develop certain compounds for treatment of sicklecell anemia.

* Vyrex Corp., of La Jolla, Calif., formed a new division calledNutrex to focus on developing products for the nutraceutical market.The company will focus on the role vitamins, minerals,phytochemicals and other nutrients play in disease processes andaging.

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.