- SmithKline Beecham's new oral anti-herpes drug, Famvir(famciclovir), is now available in the United States. It is indicated forthe treatment of shingles.- Chiron Corp., of Emeryville, Calif., said it was granted a cross-borderpreliminary injunction from a court in the Netherlands against themanufacture, sale and distribution of hepatitis C virus immunoassaysallegedly infringing Chiron's European patent by Organon TeknikaN.V. and United Biomedical Inc., the U.S. company that manufacturesHCV immunoassays for Organon.- Macrochem Corp., of Lexington, Mass., has completed the first phaseof its drug development collaboration with Dermik Laboratories Inc.- Diatech Inc., of Londonderry, N.H., has signed a deal with AdcockIngram for the South African rights to Diatech's imaging agents. Inreturn, Adcock will support ongoing develpment.- Calgene Inc., of Davis Calif., has closed $25 million in three privateplacements financings. The transactions include $1 million from a U.S.private investment fund, $9 million from Mingly Corp., and $15million in off-shore financing.- Somatix Therapy Corp., of Alameda, Calif., and Lawrence BerkeleyLaboratory have jointly entrered into a three-year, $2.5 millionCooperative Research and Development Agreement for Parkinson'sDisease Research.- Imagenetics, of Framingham, Mass., signed an agreement with SanDiego-based Canji Inc., for the rights to diagnostic applications ofcancer genes owned by Canji.- Cangene Corp., of Toronto, announced the adoption of a "PermittedBid" Shareholders Protection Rights Plan which is to be submitted forratification to sharholders this November.- BioPlex Group Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., has entered into a uniquefinancing arrangement with Univax Biologics, Inc. for the constructionof new biotechnology facilities.- Digene Diagnostics Inc. of Silver Spring, Md., has received a phase ISmall Business Innovation Research grant to develop an improvedDNA probe assay for the detection of herpes simplex virus.- Phoenix International Life Sciences Inc., of Saint Laurent, Quebec,has filed all relevant paperwork with Canadian authorities for itsupcoming initial public offering.- IDUN Pharmaceuticals Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., has signed a licensingagreement with Washington University, in St. Louis, for the rights tothe bax gene from the bcl-2 gene family for the possible treatment oflymphoma.

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