Category: Licensing

    By Jason Derry — Alligator Bioscience has announced that it has entered a collaborative agreement with SARomics.  SARomics is a research company that provides its partners with in silico drug discovery platforms in the fields of structural biology, computational chemistry, and biostatistics.  In particular, SARomics offers many services that help its partners in…

    By Jason Derry — Invitrogen Corp. has announced that it will partner with IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. to distribute and develop new water testing products.  Under the collaboration, IDEXX will distribute and market water testing kits that incorporate Invitrogen’s technologies for detecting various microorganisms.  The agreement enables Invitrogen, which recently started selling a Cryptosporidium…

    By Jason Derry — Archemix Corp. has announced alliances with Isis Pharmaceuticals and SomaLogic.  Archemix, a biotechnology company located in Cambridge, MA, filed an initial public offering July 25, 2007.  Archemix focuses on developing apatmers as directed therapeutics to prevent and treat chronic and acute diseases.  One of Archemix’s lead drug candidates is…

    By Christopher P. Singer — Genentech announced in an August 2, 2007 press release that the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period that applied to its acquisition of Tanox, Inc. has expired, and that the acquisition is now completed.  The merger agreement, originally approved by Tanox shareholders on January 15, 2007, provides a cash payment of…

    By Jason Derry — Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. has announced that it will acquire Mytogen, Inc., which has completed a Phase I clinical trial relating to its Myoblast Program for treating heart failure.  The Myoblast Program is a stem cell therapy approach to treating a patient having heart failure, in which autologous myoblasts…

    By Jason Derry — Merck has announced an agreement to acquire NovaCardia for $350 million.  NovaCardia, a biotechnology company based in San Diego, has a lead drug candidate, KW-3902, in Phase III clinical trials for treating acute congestive heart failure.  Merck hopes to expand its pipeline for cardiovascular therapeutics with the purchase of…

    By Jason Derry — Organon and MRC Technology have announced an intent to collaborate in the development of a humanized antibody for treating various cancers.  Under the agreement, MRC will use its CDR grafting technology to generate a humanized antibody based on one of Organon’s murine antibodies as a candidate for clinical development. …

    By Baltazar Gomez — On July 16, 2007, ProMetic BioSciences Inc. and Laboratorios Dermatologicos Darier S.A. announced that the companies had entered into an agreement to develop and market ProMetic’s synthetic anti-inflammatory compound PBI-1308 in dermatological disorders.  PBI-1308 is a novel compound with in vivo efficacy in animal models of atopic dermatitis and…

    By Jason Derry — Tikvah Therapeutics, Inc. and Apkarian Technologies, LLC of Chicago have announced an agreement relating to Apkarian’s patents and patent applications involving NMDA receptor agonists.  The patents and applications specifically relate to the treatment of chronic pain and pain-related indications using glycine receptor agonists.  Under the agreement, Tikvah receives exclusive…

    By Sherri Oslick — In follow up to our earlier post, Amgen Inc. announced on Monday that it has completed its acquisition of Alantos Pharmaceuticals, providing Amgen with Alantos’s DPP-IV inhibitor in clinical development (Phase 2a) for the treatment of type II diabetes, as well as its matrix metalloproteinases platform for osteoarthritis.