Company News

Avant Immunotherapeutics (Needham, MA, www.avantimmune.com) is constructing a CGMP vaccine manufacturing facility in Fall River, Massachusetts. The company is developing vaccines agains cholera, typhoid fever, influenza, and potential biowarfare agents.

Barr Laboratories, Inc. (Woodcliff Lake, NJ, www.barrlabs.com) agreed to settle litigation claims made by Invamed, Inc. and Apothecon, Inc., both acquired by Sandoz, Inc. (Holzkirchen, Germany, www.sandoz.com), about the raw material source for warfarin sodium. The agreement terminates the ongoing litigation between the parties. Per the agreement, Barr will provide a one-time payment of $22.5 million to the plaintiffs and will record the payment, or approximately $0.13 earnings per share, in the quarter ending June 30, 2006.

BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany, www.basf.com) completed its acquisition of Engelhard Corporation (Iselin, NJ, www.engelhard.com). Engelhard is now of wholly owned subsidiary of BASF. The move strengthens BASF's position in catalysis, which includes catalysts used in the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Specialty pharmaceutical company BioProgress PLC, (Cambridge, UK, www.bioprogress.com) will acquire Italy-based, specialty pharmaceutical company Segix Farma for 1.95 million euros in cash and shares. The acquisition will be made through its newly-formed subsidiary, Dexo BioPharm, with 700,000 euros paid in cash and the rest in equity. Completion is contingent upon obtaining certain waivers and consents, and is anticipated to occur on July 4, 2006.

Ferro Pfanstiehl Laboratories, Inc., a subsidiary of Ferro Corporation (Cleveland, OH, www.ferro.com), is producing commercial quantities of the high-potency active ingredient "Dacogen" (decitabine) for injection for MGI Pharma, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN, www.mgipharma.com). The US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug in May. Ferro Pfanstiehl provides process development and contract manufacturing services.

Intec Pharma (Jerusalem, Israel, www.intecpharma.com) signed an agreement with dosage form manufacturers BioEnvelop Agro (Quebec, Canadan www.bioenvelop.com) and Tapemark (West St. Paul, MN, www.tapemark.com) to scale-up the company's manufacturing platform. Intec Pharma has developed the "Accordion Pill" technology, which is designed to improve bioavailability by increasing the amount of time active ingredients are held in the gastrointestinal system, thus having the potential for multiple dosage to be housed into a one-a-day pill. The company plans to launch a series of supergeneric drugs that leverage this drug delivery technology.

Laureate Pharma (Princeton, NJ, www.laureatepharma.com) will invest as much as $9 million to expand its biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Princeton, New Jersey. The expansion will include a new pilot production plant with two separate production suites, and expanded purification production capacity to support additional CGMP production. The new pilot plant?designed for process development, production and purification of early-phase preclinical proteins?will include stainless steel stirred tank bioreactors and disposable single-use bioreactors. Employment at Laureate is expected to grow by 15% by year-end in response to increased demand.

Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, www.millennium.com) announced it will end its consideration of a possible sale and will continue to focus on increasing sales of its cancer product "Velcade" (bortezomib) for injection, progressing a pipeline of seven novel product candidates, and achieving profitable long-term growth.

Northfield Laboratories Inc. (Evanston, IL, www.northfieldlabs.com) signed an agreement with First Industrial, LP, to purchase the building Northfield currently occupies as lessee in Mt. Prospect, Illinois for $6.7 million. This 106,000-ft2 property will be used for Northfield's first planned commercial facility for the manufacture of "PolyHeme," the company's human hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier, as well as to house laboratory, quality, and administrative personnel.

Novozymes (Bagsvaerd, Denmark. www.novozymes.com) agreed to acquire Delta Biotechnology, Ltd. (Nottingham, UK, www.deltabiotechnology.com) from Sanof-Aventis (Paris, France, http://en.sanofi-aventis.com). Delta specializes in the development and production of microbially produced recombinant proteins.

ReceptoPharm (Plantation, FL, www.receptopharm.com) signed a letter of intent to be fully acquired by Nutra Pharma Corp. (Boca Raton, FL, www.nutrapharma.com), a biotechnology company that is developing drugs for HIV and multiple sclerosis. Nutra Pharma currently owns 38.1% of ReceptoPharm. The merger will provide Nutra Pharma with 100% of the outstanding ReceptoPharm stock and complete ownership of the ReceptoPharm intellectual property. In return, ReceptoPharm will initially receive 14 million shares of Nutra Pharma's common stock, with additional shares to be issued upon successful completion of certain performance milestones.
People Notes

Joe Principe was appointed Degussa AG's (Düsseldorf, Germany, www.degussa.com) vice-president of marketing and sales for the Exclusive Synthesis business line. Principe joined Degussa in 2000 as a manager of business development for Degussa?s Raylo site. In 2003, he took responsibility of marketing and sales for Exclusive Synthesis in the Nafta region. He reports to Rudolf Hanko, vice-president and general manager of the Exclusive Synthesis business line.

Transave Inc. (Monmouth Junction, NJ, www.transaveinc.com), a biopharmaceutical company developing inhaled liposomal formulated drugs for treating lung diseases, announced the appointment of Timothy G. Whitten as president and chief executive officer. Whitten will succeed Frank Pilkiewicz, founder of Transave, who will continue to support the company in a senior consulting role. Whitten joins Transave from Pharmacyclics where he served as senior vice-president of commercial operations and development since 2001.