* Bio-Technology General Corp., of Iselin, N.J., said YissumResearch and Development Co. and the American Red Cross weregranted U.S. Patent 5,403,596 covering Factor Xa inhibitor. Bio-Technology General has licensed the patent for development of ananticoagulant.

* Cadus Pharmaceutical Corp., of Tarrytown, N.Y., was granted U.S.Patent 5,405,941 covering the MEK kinase protein, which is part of asignal transduction pathway and may lead to drugs for treatingdiseases, such as asthma, allergic inflammation, autoimmunity andsome cancers.

* Cangene Inc., of Toronto, was granted U.S. patent 5,409,818related to its nucleic acid amplification technology for diagnosticproducts.

* Gen-Probe Inc., of San Diego, was granted U.S. Patent 5,299,491covering its nucleic acid sequence amplification technology, calledtranscription mediated amplification, for use in DNA probe assays.

* Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., was grantedU.S. Patent 5,403851 covering melatonin analogs, including IP 100-9, which the company is developing for treatment of sleep disorders.Melatonin is a hormone involved in regulating circadian rhythms.

* MedImmune Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., said the MassachusettsHealth Research Institute Inc. was granted U.S. Patent 5,412,077,titled "process of screening plasma samples for effective antibodytiters against respiratory viruses." MedImmune has licensed thepatented technology and is using it in production of RespiGam, adrug being developed for respiratory syncytial virus in infants.

* NeXstar Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Boulder, Colo., received noticesof allowance for two U.S. patents related to using liposomes todeliver drugs through the blood stream to tumors. The patentsdescribe intracellular uptake and tumor targeting.

* Protein Engineering Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., was granted U.S.Patent 5,403,484, for phage display techniques that generatemolecular diversity. The technology is used to develop enormousnumbers of proteins, peptides and antibodies for discovering drugsand making diagnostics.

* Sonus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bothell, Wash., was granted U.S.Patent 5,409,688 covering ultrasound contrast media compositionsinvolving free gas microbubbles of any fluorine-containinghydrocarbon.

* Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corp., of Paramus, N.J., was granted U.S.Patent 5,403,847 for use of compounds that block human alpha 1-cadrenergic receptor. The compounds are being developed fortreatment of prostatic hyperplasia.

* Transcell Technologies Inc., of Princeton, N.J., received a notice ofallowance for a U.S. patent related to use of permeation enhancersfor drug delivery across biological membranes.

* Xoma Corp., of Berkeley, Calif., was granted U.S. Patent5,420,019 covering recombinant amino-terminal fragments andfragment analogs of bactericidal permeability-increasing protein, theDNA encoding the protein and its recombinant production.

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