Life Science Briefs

17 January 2000 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

ACCESS Pharmaceuticals has filed an IND with the Food and Drug Administration for its OraRinse amlexanox 0.5 percent mouth rinse for the prevention and treatment of mucositis in patients undergoing radiation and chemotherapy.

BAYER has formed a research joint venture with Exelixis Pharmaceuticals to discover new generations of insecticides and nematocides. The new business, called GenOptera, will be headquartered in San Francisco, Calif.

BOEHRINGER Ingelheim International GmbH has formed an agreement with Trega Biosciences for the custom synthesis of exclusive solution-phase compound libraries for use in drug discovery.

CELLTECH Chiroscience PLC has acquired the patent rights in the field of humanized monoclonal antibodies from Protein Design Labs Inc. for $3 million. The deal covers up to three Celltech antibodies.

FEMINIQUE Corporation plans to sell the rights of its clinical trial cancer drug, DBD/Mitolactol, to Mova.

IBC USA Conferences says its fifth annual World Congress on Enzyme Technologies will be held on February 28-March 1 in Las Vegas, Nev. The conference will focus on accelerating the discovery, modification and commercialization of enzyme applications in areas that traditional chemistry cannot complete (www.ibcusa.com).

LIGAND Pharmaceuticals Inc. has sold the rights to its contract manufacturing business to CoPharma for $10 million in cash.

MONSANTO Company's Searle division has formed an agreement with Axys Pharmaceuticals in combinatorial chemistry. Axys, whose main focus is oncology, will supply compound screening libraries for use by Searle in their assays.

MEDRAD has completed a 45,000-square-foot expansion of the syringe manufacturing facility at its headquarters in Indianola, Pa. The expansion totaled $10 million.

MYRIAD GENETICS Inc. has formed a strategic alliance with Roche worth up to $13 million. Roche will use Myriad's ProNet technology to discover novel drug targets for the treatment of heart disease. Myriad will receive royalties from Roche for the sale of all cardiovascular disease drugs developed under the collaboration.

NETGENICS has completed a $21.3 million equity financing. The Cleveland, Ohio-based company develops and deploys tailored bioinformatics solutions for the life sciences industry.

NOVARTIS Research Foundation has signed two genomics alliances with Novalon Pharmaceutical Corporation and Axys Advanced Technologies Inc. The deal with Novalon grants Novartis nonexclusive access to BioKey assays for genomics targets in the agricultural field. The deal with Axys grants it the use of Axys's combinatorial chemistry technologies to create diverse libraries of small-molecule compounds. Also, Novartis's consumer health division has signed a deal to co-market its Lamisil AT athlete's foot remedy in more than 350 Bally fitness centers.

NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. has completed its merger with Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc. The new company now operates as NPS Pharmaceuticals in the US and NPS Allelix in Canada. Research areas include hyperparathyroidism, osteoporosis and psychiatric disorders.

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