Other News To Note

¿CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc, of Cambridge, England, has acquired UK and Ireland rights to three drugs that it says will form the first stage of a pharmaceutical business that will help fund the company's central nervous system and pain control drug development programs. CeNeS is paying #10 million (US$14.1 million) in cash to Glaxo Wellcome plc, of London, for Diconal and Cyclimorph, both analgesics, and Valoid, for countering nausea caused by opioid analgesics. The three drugs, sold mainly to hospitals, have a combined turnover of #3 million in UK and Ireland.

¿Personal Chemistry AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, has raised Krona 178 million (US$18.8 million) in a private placing whose proceeds accelerate the commercialization of Coherent Synthesis, a laboratory bench system for rapid chemical synthesis using microwaves. In June, the company was forced to pull a $50 million listing on the Stockholm Exchange due to a misunderstanding over patents. Personal Chemistry was formed as Labwell AB in 1997, and has raised $14 million in two previous funding rounds.