June 22, 2006: Company and People Notes

CompanyNews

AvantImmunotherapeutics (Needham, MA,

www.avantimmune.com

)is constructing a CGMP vaccine manufacturingfacility in Fall River, Massachusetts. The company is developingvaccines againscholera, typhoid fever, influenza, and potential biowarfare agents.

BarrLaboratories, 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 agreementterminates the ongoing litigation between the parties. Per theagreement, Barr will provide a one-time payment of $22.5 million to theplaintiffs and will record the payment, or approximately $0.13earnings per share, in the quarter ending June 30, 2006.

BASF AG (Ludwigshafen,Germany, www.basf.com)completed its acquisition of EngelhardCorporation (Iselin, NJ, www.engelhard.com).Engelhard is now of wholly owned subsidiary of BASF. The movestrengthensBASF's position in catalysis, which includes catalysts used in thesynthesis 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 eurosin cash and shares. The acquisition will be made through itsnewly-formed subsidiary, DexoBioPharm,with 700,000 euros paid in cash and the rest in equity. Completion iscontingent upon obtaining certain waivers and consents, and isanticipated to occur on July 4, 2006.

FerroPfanstiehl Laboratories, Inc., a subsidiary of Ferro Corporation (Cleveland, OH, www.ferro.com), isproducing 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. FerroPfanstiehl provides process development and contract manufacturingservices.

Intec Pharma (Jerusalem, Israel, www.intecpharma.com)signed an agreement with dosage form manufacturers BioEnvelop Agro (Quebec, Canadanwww.bioenvelop.com) and Tapemark(West St. Paul, MN, www.tapemark.com)toscale-up the company's manufacturing platform. Intec Pharma hasdeveloped the "Accordion Pill" technology, which is designed to improvebioavailability by increasing the amount of time active ingredients areheld in the gastrointestinal system, thus having the potential formultiple dosage to be housed into a one-a-day pill. The company plansto launch a series of supergeneric drugs that leverage this drugdelivery technology.

LaureatePharma (Princeton, NJ, www.laureatepharma.com) will invest as much as $9million to expand its biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility inPrinceton, New Jersey. The expansion will include a new pilotproduction plant with two separate production suites, and expandedpurification production capacity to support additional CGMP production.The new pilot plant?

designed for process development,production and purification of early-phase preclinical proteins?

willinclude stainless steel stirred tank bioreactors and disposablesingle-use bioreactors. Employment at Laureate is expected to grow by15% by year-end in response to increased demand.

MillenniumPharmaceuticals, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, www.millennium.com)announced it will end its consideration of a possible sale and willcontinue to focus on increasing sales of itscancer product "Velcade" (bortezomib) for injection, progressing apipeline of seven novel product candidates, and achieving profitable long-termgrowth.

NorthfieldLaboratories Inc. (Evanston, IL, www.northfieldlabs.com)signed an agreement with FirstIndustrial, LP, to purchase the building Northfield currentlyoccupies as lessee in Mt. Prospect, Illinois for $6.7 million. This106,000-ft² property will be used for Northfield's firstplannedcommercial facility for the manufacture of "PolyHeme," the company'shuman hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier, as well as to house laboratory,quality, and administrative personnel.

Novozymes(Bagsvaerd, Denmark. www.novozymes.com)agreed to acquire DeltaBiotechnology, Ltd. (Nottingham, UK, www.deltabiotechnology.com)from Sanof-Aventis (Paris,France, http://en.sanofi-aventis.com).Delta specializes in the development and production of microbiallyproduced 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 multiplesclerosis. Nutra Pharma currently owns 38.1% of ReceptoPharm. Themerger will provide Nutra Pharma with 100% of the outstandingReceptoPharm stock and complete ownership of the ReceptoPharmintellectual property. In return, ReceptoPharm will initially receive14 million shares of Nutra Pharma's common stock, with additionalshares to be issued upon successful completion of certain performancemilestones.

People Notes

Joe Principe wasappointed Degussa AG's(Düsseldorf, Germany, www.degussa.com) vice-president of marketing andsales for the Exclusive Synthesisbusiness line. Principe joined Degussa in 2000 as a manager of businessdevelopment for Degussa?s Raylo site. In 2003, he took responsibilityof marketing and sales for Exclusive Synthesis in the Nafta region. Hereports to Rudolf Hanko, vice-president and general manager of theExclusive Synthesis business line.

Transave Inc. (MonmouthJunction, NJ, www.transaveinc.com),a biopharmaceutical company developing inhaled liposomal formulateddrugs for treating lung diseases, announced the appointment of Timothy G. Whitten as president andchief executive officer. Whitten will succeed Frank Pilkiewicz, founderof Transave, who will continue to support the company in a seniorconsulting role. Whitten joins Transave from Pharmacyclics where heserved as senior vice-president of commercial operations anddevelopment since 2001.