Synergen Inc. shares picked up $3 on Friday, closing at $53.50,after the company said it has received Food and DrugAdministration approval to begin testing Antril interleukin-1receptor antagonist in three new indications.

The Boulder, Colo., company (NASDAQ:SYGN) plans to beginPhase I/II clinical trials in asthma, inflammatory bowel diseaseand graft-vs.-host disease within the next few weeks.

Antril is being tested in four other indications. Phase II trials insepsis have been completed and Phase III trials will begin inearly 1992; it is in Phase II trials in rheumatoid arthritis andchronic myelogenous leukemia; and a pilot study is ongoing incachexia (wasting).

Amgen Inc. stock (NASDAQ:AMGN) rose $2.38 to $62.25following the announcement that the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office had decided in favor of the Thousand Oaks,Calif., company's patents on erythropoietin in three instances inwhich Genetics Institute Inc. had also filed patents. Shares ofCambridge, Mass.-based GI (NASDAQ:GENI) rose 50 cents to$38.75.

MGI Pharma Inc. posted a second day of gains, up $2.50 to$18.63. Shares of the Minneapolis-based company(NASDAQ:MOGN) rose 46 percent Thursday and Friday. MGItold BioWorld that the gains were probably a result of theupswing in competitor U.S. Bioscience Inc.'s stock, which hasalmost doubled in value since it announced Nov. 19 that itsEthyol product will be reviewed by an FDA advisory committeeon Jan. 31. MGI has a competing product in Phase III trials. UBSshares (AMEX:UBS) closed up $1.13 at $75.13.

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