Cambridge Biotech Corp., of Worcester, Mass., said a bankruptcycourt declared a non-exclusive patent license to be in effect, as ofJan. 1, 1996, between the company and Institut Pasteur, coveringCambridge Biotech's HIV Western blot test. The court instructedCambridge to pay a 1 percent royalty on net sales, and damages equalto 1 percent royalty for the pre-license period.

Digene Diagnostics Inc., of Silver Spring, Md., said its HybridCapture System Human Papillomavirus DNA Assay is now availablefor in vitro diagnostic use. The broad-spectrum, non-radioactiveassay detects 14 HPV types.

Endogen Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., entered into an asset purchaseagreement with Cytokine Sciences Inc., a Boston-based supplier ofimmunoassay test kits and reagents. Endogen acquired CSI's test kitsfor rabbit and rat cytokines and related reagents in exchange for anundisclosed amount of cash and stock.

Epitope Inc., of Beaverton, Ore., received FDA notification that itspremarket approval application for the Western blot confirmatory testfor use in HIV testing with the company's Orasure oral specimencollection device is approvable.

Oncor Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., received FDA permission toexport to Canada its in vitro diagnostic gene-based test for HER-2/neu gene amplification in breast cancer. The system is approved inCanada, but for investigational use only in the U.S.

* T Cell Diagnostics Inc., of Needham, Mass., signed an exclusiveU.S. distribution agreement with Diamedix Corp., a wholly ownedIVAX Corp. subsidiary, relating to the sale and promotion of itsTRAx CD4 and CD8 microtiter plate, an enzyme immunoassay usedfor enumeration of CD4 T lymphocytes.

* Metra Biosystems Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., got U.S.regulatory clearance for its Pyrilinks-D urinary assay, which providesa quantitative measure of the excretion of deoxypyrinoline crosslinksas an indicator of bone loss. Also, Metra entered into a definitiveagreement to acquire Osteo Sciences Corp. for stock worth about $10million. Osteo Sciences uses ultrasound technology in developinghand-held products that evaluate characteristics of bone associatedwith bone weakness.

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