* Centocor Inc., of Malvern, Pa., amended its sales and distributionagreement with Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, so that Lilly nolonger has the exclusive right to buy ReoPro for resale in Japan. Lillyretains that right in the rest of the world. As part of the amendmentCentocor issued Lilly 920,716 shares, bringing Lilly's stake to 2percent of Centocor, or 1.6 million shares. Lilly said the decisionaffects only Japan, and was made because the cardiovascular productis outside its focus in Japan.

* CytoMed Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and Stiefel Laboratories Inc.,of Coral Gables, Fla., signed an agreement for development ofCytoMed's CMI-392 for dermatologic uses in Europe, LatinAmerica, Canada, Australia and other countries. The productcurrently is in trials for inflammatory disorders such as atopicdermatitis and psoriasis. CytoMed could receive up to $11 million inequity investments, fees and milestone payments as well as royaltieson sales.

* EntreMed Inc., of Rockville, Md., said its newly created subsidiary,Cytokine Sciences Inc., completed the acquisition of InnovativeTherapeutics Inc., of Denver. Innovative conducts early stageresearch on infectious diseases by stimulating specific cellularimmunity. Innovative gained a 15 percent interest in CytokineSciences. EntreMed paid $250,000 and agreed to provide $1.6million in research funding in the first two years.

* Genome Therapeutics Corp., of Waltham, Mass., signed a licensingagreement giving Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J.,rights to use certain yeast gene patents in a specific infectious diseaseindication. The deal calls for a "modest" up-front payment toGenome Therapeutics and royalties on any sales.

* ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp., of Waltham, Mass., initiated adouble-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study in 500 patientsof its Allervax Ragweed product. Trial result should be available inthe first quarter of 1997, in time for inclusion in a product licenseapplication, the company said.

* Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., ofNutley, N.J., said a gene-based assay is ready to enter screening atRoche to identify obesity drug candidates. It is the first gene-baseddiscovery effort at Millennium to reach the drug candidate screeningstage. Millennium will receive a milestone when drug screeningbegins.

* Myriad Genetics Inc., of Salt Lake City, started a research programwith Intermountain Health Care, of Salt Lake City, to identify genesinvolved in diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). Theprogram will link anonymous patient records from Intermountain'sdata base to Myriad's genealogy data base for CNS disorders. Myriadwill have exclusive rights to all diagnostic and therapeuticapplications.

* Pharmos Corp., of Alachua, Fla., received an award of $1 million tosupport development of a product containing the site-active steroid,Lotemax, and the antibiotic, tobramycin. The award came from theU.S. Binational Industrial Research Foundation, which providesfunding to stimulate collaboration between Israeli and U.S.companies.

* Somatogen Inc., of Boulder, Colo., and development partner, EliLilly and Co., of Indianapolis, began enrollment in Phase II study ofthe intraoperative use of Optro to deliver oxygen and restore bloodvolume to treat blood loss during surgery. Optro is a first-generationrecombinant human hemoglobin.

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