Centocor, Inc. kicked off the celebration of the company’s 25th anniversary with a visit by Governor Edward G. Rendell on Wednesday, May 26th. The company will have future events at each of its facilities to mark the anniversary.

In his address to company employees, Governor Rendell stressed the important work being done by companies such as Centocor to improve the lives of patients. The Governor said that public officials need to support the bio-pharmaceutical industry not only through policy initiatives such as the expanded R&D tax credit, but also by becoming true advocates for the industry.

Centocor, Inc. announced that its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, has acquired Egea Biosciences, Inc. of San Diego. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Egea, the pioneers of a technology platform designed to optimize protein therapeutics, will strengthen Centocor’s position as a leader in biomedicines and protein therapeutics technology. Egea’s technology will be used to create product candidates that Centocor can further develop, manufacture and market. The two companies previously announced an exclusive research collaboration on May 13, 2003.

The integration of Egea will enhance Centocor’s commitment to protein therapeutics technology and biomedical research and development.

“Bringing together these two innovative companies reflects our common mission of transforming patients’ lives through products that treat, and ultimately cure, debilitating or life-threatening diseases,” said Jay P. Siegel, M.D., President, Centocor Research & Development. “We share a commitment to patients and health care professionals to pursue solutions to unmet medical needs. Delivering on that commitment begins in laboratories like Egea’s. We are extremely fortunate to add to our group the employees of Egea with their passion for innovative biomedical technologies.”

Egea Biosciences was founded in 2000 by Glen Evans, M.D., Ph.D. Prior to establishing Egea, Dr. Evans was a leading investigator in the Human Genome Project and held positions at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and at the Salk Institute. Egea’s platform technology enables, for the first time, the optimization of biologics and antibodies for therapeutic use through proprietary large-scale gene synthesis.

“We are pleased that Egea’s core technology for gene synthesis and protein design will now become an important tool in Centocor’s drug development effort,” said Glen A. Evans, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Egea Biosciences, Inc. “Developing the critical medicines for the future will remain a key focus for Egea’s advanced technology platforms.”

Source: Centocor, Inc.

Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) and Concurrent Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced that Concurrent has agreed to acquire certain rights to Allergan's pre-clinical programs and broad research portfolio in retinoid and rexinoid nuclear receptor compounds. The clinical assets and compounds included in this transaction include near-clinical compounds and are primarily derived from Allergan's retinoid program, which Allergan has pursued since 1988. This transaction will provide Concurrent with a portfolio of development compounds and near-clinical candidates, and will fortify a discovery engine with the potential to create a pipeline of product leads and follow-on programs.

Under the terms of the transaction, Allergan will receive equity in Concurrent, as well as future milestone and royalty payments. Concurrent's Board of Directors will be expanded to add a representative designated by Allergan.

"Concurrent now has multiple product candidates entering clinical development and we aim to have two compounds with validating clinical data within 18 to 24 months," said Jeffrey Hatfield, Concurrent's CEO. "The acquisition of the highly regarded retinoid program from Allergan provides a unique opportunity to accelerate Concurrent's drug development activities, expand our product pipeline and strengthen our research capabilities."

Augmenting Concurrent's existing lead drug discovery program in renin inhibitors for cardiovascular diseases, the retinoid program acquired from Allergan includes certain exclusive license rights in compounds in the areas of diabetes and cancer; and one dermatology compound. In addition, Concurrent will gain certain exclusive license rights in a comprehensive patent estate of more than 900 issued and pending worldwide patents, and more than 15 programs available for internal or external development in a variety of therapeutic areas. The Allergan retinoid receptor research team that discovered TAZORAC(R) (tazarotene), currently one of the fastest growing acne products in the United States, will join Concurrent as part of the transaction. Allergan's TAZORAC(R) is not included in the transaction.

"The programs and intellectual property assets in which Concurrent is acquiring certain rights from Allergan are an ideal complement to our discovery capabilities in computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry and cellular biology, and will accelerate our forward-integration into drug development," said John Baldwin, Ph.D., Concurrent's president and chief scientific officer. "The field of nuclear receptor biology is extremely promising. We are excited to expand our work in this area and to welcome the world-class team from Allergan to our organization."

Source: Concurrent Pharmaceuticals

Respironics, Inc. (Nasdaq: RESP) announced that it will make an offer to acquire for cash the issued share capital of Profile Therapeutics plc (London SE symbol: PTP) for 50.9 pence per share or a total of approximately $44.6 million, at the current exchange rate. The UK-based company, which distributes, develops and commercializes specialty products to improve the treatment of sleep and respiratory patients, would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Respironics and would be integrated into two of the Company's Divisions -- the International Division and the Respiratory Drug Delivery Division (formerly the Asthma and Allergy Division). The last 12 months of reported revenues for Profile Therapeutics totaled 14.6 million pounds sterling or approximately $23.9 million. Profile is currently Respironics' distributor for sleep and ventilation products in the UK and has represented Respironics products for over 15 years in that country.

Respironics estimates the acquisition would add $15 to $20 million to its annual revenues, after eliminating the impact of inter-company sales, and would be neutral to earnings per share during fiscal years 2004 and 2005. The acquisition is expected to be modestly accretive in fiscal year 2006 adding approximately $0.02 to $0.03 per share.

The acquisition has been approved by the boards of directors of both Profile Therapeutics and Respironics and is subject to a UK procedure that is similar in form to a tender offer in the US. Shareholders representing approximately 66% of Profile Therapeutics' outstanding shares have indicated their support for the transaction, subject to certain limitations. The offer is subject to customary closing conditions. Completion of the acquisition is expected around the end of the second quarter of calendar year 2004, which is Respironics' fiscal year 2004 fourth quarter.

"This opportunity is consistent with our strategic plan, which calls for expanding our presence in the international sleep and respiratory markets, and enhances the breadth of our products and services," said Respironics' President and CEO John Miclot. "Profile Therapeutics has been an excellent long-standing customer in the UK and has also developed innovative technologies that are complementary to our existing portfolio."

Profile Therapeutics' core respiratory delivery system is an innovative platform that utilizes "intelligent inhalation" technology called Adaptive Aerosol Delivery (AAD(R)). This delivery system is designed to automatically respond to individual patients' breathing patterns to deliver a precise dose synchronized with the patient's inhalation cycle. The technology has the potential to benefit patients by ensuring a uniform drug dose and reproducible therapy, and in addition, allows for smaller fill volumes of drug to be used compared to conventional nebulizers.
The company's second generation AAD system, Prodose(TM), is approved for use in the UK, various markets in Europe and has recently received 510K clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"We believe Profile Therapeutics' latest innovation, Prodose, has significant advantages over other treatment modalities for patients with chronic respiratory conditions," noted Miclot. "Profile's combination of talent and technology would offer our Respiratory Drug Delivery Division a significant strategic edge in the respiratory drug delivery sector. Additionally, we believe Profile's strong UK sales channel would strengthen our International Division's presence in the UK, a key European market."

Source: Respironics, Inc.

Locus Pharmaceuticals announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. Patent No. 6,735,530 B1, entitled “Computational Protein Probing to Identify Binding Sites”, on May 11, 2004. The patent protects an innovative computational method for the design of new drugs. Locus’ proprietary core technology rapidly calculates the affinity of small molecule fragments, selected from Locus’ proprietary fragment database, to allow accurate mapping of the surface of targeted proteins. From such information, Locus scientists identify viable drug binding sites and computationally design and synthesize new drug molecules for the target protein. This computerized technology significantly increases the speed and accuracy of the drug design process, allowing more predictive lead generation compared to traditional drug discovery methods such as High Throughput Screening. Importantly, since fewer, but more accurate molecules are synthesized, the overall drug development costs are substantially reduced.

Through the application of this technology, Locus has evolved core therapeutic programs in AIDS, cancer and inflammation and anticipates initiating clinical trials in 2005 and 2006.

“The speed and accuracy with which the Locus technology can design potent new drug candidates de novo represents a major step forward in medicinal chemistry. Previously intractable therapeutic targets routinely yield to the molecular diversity that this technology can bring to bear on ligand design. We believe this technology will be an integral component of future drug development approaches,” said Dr. Jeff Wiseman, Vice President, Technology & Informatics at Locus Pharmaceuticals.

The patent describes a significant advance in the use of computers to speed up the design of new drugs. As an example, purely experimental efforts to map protein surfaces in the past have taken years to accomplish what the Locus technology can achieve in weeks. The patented algorithms apply advanced principles of statistical thermodynamic sampling to determine unique and suitable binding sites on the protein target by rapidly and accurately calculating how and where selected drug-like molecular fragments “stick” to the protein’s surface. Such data also allow determination of the overall quality of binding of such fragments to the protein binding site which predicts the likely impact of drug intervention on a protein target. This data has been previously elusive and intractable to computational approaches at speeds that are practical.
”The issue of this patent is a significant first for Locus. This core patent is the initial product of a substantial and broad-based patent portfolio covering computational methods for designing drug molecule candidates, as well as the pharmaceutical compounds that evolve from those de novo efforts,” said Dr. Yuriy P. Stercho, Director of Legal Affairs and Secretary.

This drug discovery technology was developed by Dr. Frank Guarnieri while at the Sarnoff Corporation. Sarnoff, originally the research arm for the RCA corporation, developed the first commercial color television and since then has evolved to an independent research organization that continues to deliver innovative technologies. Locus Pharmaceuticals was created in the year 1999 to extend and apply the Sarnoff technology in the practice of pharmaceutical drug discovery. Locus Pharmaceuticals is the exclusive licensee of this technology and is deploying the technology in its own drug discovery efforts in the areas of cancer, AIDS, and inflammation.
Locus also collaborates on external discovery research programs in both the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries where this technology is deployed on targets proprietary to such partners. To date, Locus has entered such collaborations with Dupont’s Crop Protection unit, Cornell Research Institute and Speedel Experimenta.

Source: Locus Pharmaceuticals

Escalon Medical Corp. announced that its Sonomed division introduced two new products at the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Symposium and Congress, which was being earlier this week in San Diego, California. The first product, a new ultrasound bio-microscope called the UBM/35S, enables an ophthalmologist or ophthalmic surgeon to obtain an accurate image of the front of the eye, including a cross-section of the cornea. In addition, Escalon received 510 (k) marketing clearance from the FDA for its new B-Scan, the E-Z Scan™, an enhanced combination A-scan / B- scan, and is launching this product in the U.S.

"We are very excited about the potential for these two products," commented Richard J. DePiano, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The UBM/35S is one of the few ophthalmic devices that enables you to see into the front chamber of the eye. While this will be particularly useful with glaucoma patients as well as in refractive surgery, we also see significant potential for its use in the insertion of implantable contact lenses. In this particular application, it is critical that the lenses are positioned properly to avoid damage to the eye, including cataracts."

Mr. DePiano added, "We are also pleased to announce the FDA approval of our E-Z Scan™. The product is an ophthalmic ultrasound device that is used to take an image of the back of the eye, even when the view is impaired due to conditions such as cataracts. The product has aroused great interest at various shows overseas and we are excited to commence marketing to the U.S. With these new product additions we believe Sonomed will offer a full portfolio of diagnostic tools for the ophthalmologist, enabling access to both the front and back of the eye."

About the UBM/35S

The UBM/35S is a high frequency ultrasound device that features a miniature lightweight probe, an interchangeable 35 or 50 MHz transducer, and offers high sensitivity, high accuracy, high precision and high reproducibility. Other features include dynamic movie recording, Vector A Scan Measurement, Anterior Biometry to measure cornea thickness, lens thickness with adjusted tissue velocity, Dual set calipers, Angle measurement, 2X digital zoom with dual set calipers and 2X digital zoom with angle measurement. Escalon Medical's UBM/35S is specifically designed for the U.S. market and utilizes high frequency technology supplied by Ophthalmologic Technologies Inc. (OTI) of Ontario, Canada. The collaborative product is expected to be available in June 2004.

About the E-Z Scan™

The E-Z Scan™is an enhanced combination A-scan / B scan ophthalmic ultrasound device used to image and diagnose retinal and other conditions at the back of the eye. E-Z Scan, which replaces Sonomed's B5500 series, offers a Color or Gray Scale B-Scan image with a full function A-Scan. The device features a touch screen interface as well as a small and lightweight design.

Source: Escalon Medical Corporation