OXFORD, MATUSCHKA FORM INTERNATIONAL FUNDOxford Partners of Stamford, Conn., and Matuschka Venturepartners of Boston have formed the International BioscienceFund-Japan, a venture capital partnership to invest inemerging biotechnology companies in North America andEurope.

IBF-Japan will be a sister fund to the International BioscienceFund, an Oxford-Matuschka partnership announced last June.IBF is raising money in Europe and the United States, whileIBF-Japan is raising money in Japan through Nomura SecuritiesInternational.

IBFund-Japan is scheduled to close in October, with initialcapital of $20 million. The International Bioscience Fund isscheduled to close in May, with $25 million from corporateinvestors. A later round from financial investors should bringin another $25 million.

BARR SEEKS TO MANUFACTURE GENERIC AZT

Barr Laboratories Inc. of Pomona, N.Y., has filed an applicationwith the Food and Drug Administration to manufacture ageneric equivalent of the AIDS drug AZT, the companyannounced Thursday. AZT is the only drug approved for thetreatment of AIDS.

Burroughs Wellcome Co. holds patents for use of AZT to treatAIDS that do not expire until 2005. Barr Labs (AMEX:BRL) saidit intends to challenge the patents. The company said it wouldnot be able to sell the product before March 1992.

A group of HIV-infected people, represented by the consumergroup Public Citizen, sued Burroughs Wellcome in federal courtlast month, seeking to overturn the patents. The suit allegesthat Burroughs Wellcome wrongly took credit for research doneby federal scientists.

According to Barr Labs, worldwide sales of AZT were $287million last year.

BTGC STARTS 2nd CLINICAL FOR COLITIS TREATMENT

Bio-Technology General Corp. of New York announced Fridaythat it has started a second clinical trial aimed at testing thesafety and pilot efficacy of its recombinant human superoxidedismutase (SOD) in ulcerative colitis patients.

The new trial is being run at Leiden University Hospital in theNetherlands. The first trial, being conducted in the UnitedKingdom, started last December.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic disease characterized by severeinflammation of the large intestine. Victims periodically sufferhigh fever, internal bleeding and ultimately perforation of thebowel.

Each year, 30,000 new cases of inflammatory bowel disease arediagnosed in the United States. -- Rachel Nowak

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