Dealmakers

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Point-of-care diagnostics developer Syn X Pharma Inc. (Toronto, ON) and Nanogen Inc. (San Diego, CA) have signed an agreement under which Nanogen will acquire Syn X in an all-stock transaction worth approximately $16.3 million. As part of the agreement, Nanogen will issue shares of Nanogen common stock in a stock-for-stock exchange with holders of Syn X common stock. Nanogen will retain the Syn X brand name as well as Syn X’s Toronto research facility. Syn X’s board of directors unanimously approved the agreement. Syn X chairman, CEO and CSO George Jackowski, PhD and president and COO Rod Wilson will join the Nanogen management team.


GeneMax Pharmaceuticals Inc., (Vancouver, BC) a wholly owned subsidiary of Blaine, Wash.-based GeneMax Corp., has acquired the worldwide exclusive licence for a novel assay technology from the University of British Columbia (UBC) (Vancouver, BC). The assay, which was developed by Wilfred Jefferies, PhD at UBC’s Biomedical Research Centre and the university’s Biotechnology Laboratory, can be used to screen and select new drugs that regulate immune responses.


In order to advance its program for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Neurochem Inc. (Montreal, QC) has formed a strategic alliance with the National Research Council of Canada’s (Ottawa, ON) Institute of Biological Sciences (NRC-IBS) (Montreal, QC). The company will work with conjugated vaccines expert Harold J. Jennings, PhD of the NRC-IBS. Neurochem has also entered a licensing agreement with Praecis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Waltham, MA) relating to specific amyloid peptides for the development of a synthetic AD vaccine.


Toronto, Ont.-based ChondroGene Ltd. (Toronto, ON) has received the second milestone payment from Pfizer Inc. (New York, NY) in the two companies’ joint drug target identification program for osteoarthritis (OA), established in 2002. The payment of $1.31 million is in addition to quarterly payments from Pfizer that promote ChondroGene’s OA biomarker program.


Bioxel Pharma Inc. (Ste-Foy, QC) has entered into a purchase agreement worth at least $1.2 million with Cell Therapeutics Inc. (CTI) (Seattle, WA). Under the agreement, Bioxel will provide CTI with cGMP paclitaxel from Bioxel’s new large-scale manufacturing unit. CTI will use the paclitaxel in the production of its Phase III oncology drug Xyotax™.