Bioscience

MedImmune Inc. said yesterday that the sudden suspension of an AIDS drug trial by U.S. Bioscience Inc. won't scuttle its planned purchase of the Pennsylvania biotechnology company.The trial, which was being conducted in three countries, was suspended after one patient died and other problems were reported."Given what we know right now, we intend to move forward with the deal," said Lori Weiman, a MedImmune spokeswoman.Gaithersburg-based MedImmune agreed last month to purchase West Conshohocken, Pa.-based U.S. Bioscience for $477 million.

Gaithersburg-based MedImmune Inc., one of the nation's few profitable biotechnology companies, said yesterday that it plans to buy U.S. Bioscience Inc. so it can move into the oncology market.The proposed stock swap deal values U.S. Bioscience of West Conshohocken, Pa., at $492 million, or $16.50 a share. U.S. Bioscience shares rose $2.625 to $14.125 yesterday. MedImmune rose $7.1875 to $109.25."This acquisition further solidifies MedImmune's commitment to the field of oncology," said Wayne Hockmeyer, chief executive officer at MedImmune.

MedImmune Inc., the fast-growing Maryland biotechnology company, said yesterday that it has completed its purchase of U.S. Bioscience Inc. in a bid to move into the growing market for new cancer treatments.Shareholders of U.S. Bioscience, based in West Conshohocken, Pa., received 0.15 shares of Gaithersburg-based MedImmune for each U.S. Bioscience share they held.MedImmune, whose chief product is a drug to prevent a serious respiratory illness in infants, said the stock transaction had an equity value of $580 million.

Last year was a great one for Maryland stocks.Huge gains in the shares of companies such as Healthcare Financial Partners Inc. and Igen International Inc. helped power the index of Maryland's top public companies to a 36 percent total return for 1997, besting the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq composite.The Dow generated a total return of 24.94 percent and the Nasdaq 31.3 percent.Eight companies in the Bloomberg Maryland Index saw their shares return more than 100 percent for the year, while five companies lost 50 percent or more.

Maryland's once nascent bioscience industry has emerged as a fast-expanding force in the state's economic growth, employing more than 40,000 statewide at 200-plus companies and institutions and paying wages averaging almost $50,000 annually, a new report on the industry has found.The report also says that investment in Maryland companies has become significant in generating new wealth in the state. That includes $900 million in venture capital and other investments in privately held Maryland bioscience companies, and 15 biotechnology investors whose holdings in Maryland companies are each worth more than $1 million.

Orr E. Reynolds, scientist with NASA, is dead at 72Orr E. Reynolds, a Maryland scientist who had headed the Defense Department Office of Science and later directed bioscience programs at NASA, died March 30 at North Beach Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after a fall. He was 72.The son of a Johns Hopkins University chemistry professor, Dr. Reynolds was born in Baltimore but reared near the National Zoo in Washington. He once said that frequent visits to the zoo probably helped shape his interest in biology.

PharmaKinetics Laboratories Inc., a Baltimore-based company that tests pharmaceutical products before they are released for widespread use, announced yesterday a major reorganization of its top management.V. Brewster Jones, president of the company's U.S. operations, which are in Baltimore, has been promoted to president and chief executive officer and appointed a director.He replaces Steven A. Woodman, who has resigned as president, CEO and director to assume a business-development role for the company.

PharmaKinetics Laboratories Inc., struggling to avoid bankruptcy, said yesterday it had found a buyer for its North American operations.The company, which has been losing money for months, said it hoped that the move would be enough to salvage the 23-year-old Baltimore-based biotechnology company.If the proposed sale of PharmaKinetics' 150-worker domestic operations to Applied Bioscience International Inc. goes through, PharmaKinetics will be left with its West German subsidiary, International Bio Research, and potential licensing fee income on products awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

PharmaKinetics Laboratories Inc. of Baltimore announced yesterday that it intends to file for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code, probably today.V. Brewster Jones, PharmaKinetics' president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the 125-employee drug-testing and consulting company expects to keep operating while it puts together a reorganization plan that could allow it to stay in business.The Chapter 11 filing prevents creditors from seizing the company's assets while it works on the plan.

Financially strapped PharmaKinetics Laboratories Inc., which planned to sell its key assets to a New Jersey company, has announced the deal has fallen through.The Baltimore-based drug-development company said yesterday that negotiations have been suspended with Applied Bioscience International of East Millstone, N.J., and that it did not anticipate the negotiations would resume.PharmaKinetics said on Oct. 4 that it would sell its U.S. operations to Applied Bioscience for $4.8 million in cash and contingent payments of $2 million over a period of up to five years.

A Maryland maker of anthrax vaccine said Friday that it has bought a 55,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in East Baltimore that it will use to expand its operations, potentially creating as many as 125 jobs in the city over the next five years that initially were expected in Frederick. Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a 600-person bio-pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Rockville, bought the East Baltimore facility for $7.85 million from the MdBio Foundation, a charitable and educational foundation that supports the state's bioscience industry.

Gov. Martin O'Malley unveiled yesterday a proposal to invest $1.1 billion over the next decade to cement Maryland's status as a pre-eminent hub for biotechnology research, including stem-cell studies aimed at finding breakthrough medical advances. The funding, which would build on existing tax credits and grant programs, would be used to create a biotechnology center, finance capital projects and make equity investments in start-up companies. O'Malley, a Democrat, said the money could transform Maryland - where the human genome was mapped in 2001 - into a global leader in personalized medicine or the use of genetics to tailor treatments.

Maryland has key competitive advantages in the nationwide race to be big in bioscience but must get better at translating its research into business successes, speakers at a gathering of politicians, business leaders and educators said yesterday. State Comptroller Peter Franchot, who organized the Maryland Life Sciences Summit in Columbia, used the opportunity to call for more state funding of startup companies, for more of the state's pension fund to be invested in biotechnology and for more collaboration among government, academia and industry.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is set to announce this morning members of a new Life Sciences Advisory Board, which was created to further his professed mission of making "Maryland the bioscience capital of the world." Fifteen people from the industry, academia and government are to serve on the panel, including Chairman H. Thomas Watkins, chief executive of Rockville's Human Genome Sciences. The life sciences industry - which encompasses biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food science and medical devices and technologies - has repeatedly been tagged by state politicians and officials as key to economic growth.

After years of failing to attract a big pharmaceutical presence to the state - and losing the competition for a Novartis AG plant to North Carolina last summer - it's time for Maryland economic developers to shift gears in biotechnology, according to a study being released online today. The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore spent the past six months compiling data and interviewing company representatives to create the Biosciences Report, a 40-page assessment of the local industry and its growth potential (available at www.greaterbaltimore.

Mergers Bradford Bank signed a definitive agreement to acquire Baltimore-based Golden Prague Federal Savings & Loan. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. Seibert Kullman PA, an Annapolis-based accounting firm with clients in Anne Arundel County and on the Eastern Shore, joined Katz, Abosch,Windesheim, Gershman & Freedman of Baltimore. Openings Liberty Tax Service/Edsel M. Brown Jr. Advisors opened an office at Festival at Riva Road, 2303 Forest Drive, Annapolis. Organizations The Greater Baltimore Committee has opened nominations for the Greater Baltimore Region Bioscience Awards.

General Electric Co. has always been the largest individual holding in my portfolio. Should I keep it that way? - G.C., via the Internet This giant conglomerate with 11 operating segments and a history of creating shareholder value continues to offer cause for investor optimism. Profits from its NBC television network and hit movies such as Meet the Fockers and Ray have been strong, as have its health care and transportation division results. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt predicts that, barring significant increases in raw material prices, earnings could increase as much as 17 percent this year.

A month after being elected governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. mounted a podium before several hundred people at a technology convention in downtown Baltimore and vowed greater support for their industry. "We've done pretty well," said Ehrlich, who co-chaired the biotechnology caucus in the House of Representatives as a Baltimore County congressman, "but we can do better." Two years later, however, many in technology business - especially the life sciences - are uncertain about the state's progress.

The Carroll County commissioners unanimously enacted an ordinance yesterday that will allow bioscience research facilities to operate in areas zoned for agriculture. The ordinance could affect any possible expansion of Spring Valley Laboratories in Woodbine, the county's only animal research facility. The facility, on a 110-acre farm, has housed labs for breeding and testing animals since 1980. The business tests vaccines and has contracts with the National Institutes of Health and several private companies.

Hearing to be held on zoning change for bioscience research The Carroll County commissioners sent to a public hearing yesterday a revision to the zoning ordinance that would allow bioscience research facilities as a conditional use on agricultural land. The proposed zoning amendment would restrict the size, setbacks and certifications required for a research facility. Such research laboratories would conduct clinical trials on animals, plants and food to develop products, according to the proposal.