Eastview-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is seeking to develop drugs for cancer, eye conditions and inflammatory conditions, said this morning it will receive at least $4.3 million a year for five years by allowing a French company to use its technology.

Sanofi-aventis SA will use Regeneron’s proprietary VelociGene technology in its internal research programs, Regeneron said. The technology provides models of gene function and disease.

Regeneron lost $105.6 million on revenue of $125.02 million in fiscal 2007.

Acorda Therapeutics Inc., the pharmaceutical company based in Hawthorne, said this morning it lost $18.8 million, or 58 cents a share, during the quarter that ended in June.

During the corresponding quarter in 2007, the company, which markets Zanaflex, a treatment for involuntary muscle movements caused by multiple sclerosis and spinal injuries, lost $8.2 million, or 33 cents a share.

Net sales rose to $11.36 million from $9.48 million.

The company is also seeking to develop Fampridine-SR, a drug to help people with multiple sclerosis walk.

Dr. Ron Cohen, the president and chief executive of the company, said in a statement released by the company. “Acorda continued to achieve important milestones in this quarter.”

EpiCept Corp. of Eastview said this morning the 5.53 million shares of its stock available in an upcoming public offering will be priced at 54.3 cents apiece. The five-year warrants to buy up to 2.76 million shares will carry an exercise price of 48 cents a share, the company said.

EpiCept will take in about 2.65 million in net proceeds from the offering. The company plans to use the money for general corporate purposes and to repay a portion of a secured loan.

The company is seeking to develop drugs for cancer patients.

EpiCept last week announced it had received a regulatory approval in Europe for Ceplene, a treatment for a type of leukemia. The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued a positive opinion regarding the marketing of Ceplene.

The company’s shares were trading at 58 cents, down 8 cents, at about 10:20 a.m.

Emisphere Technologies Inc. said today new study results show an oral form of vitamin B12 that the company is developing reduced the amount of time it took for the body to absorb the nutrient, while increasing the amount of the nutrient that was absorbed.

Developing an effective oral form of the nutrient may save millions of Americans from painful injections, needed to ensure they get adequate levels of vitamin B12.

The study, which involved 20 men divided into four groups, showed vitamin B12 absorption was 10 times higher in those given a supplement using Emisphere’s eligen technology, according to the Cedar Knolls, N.J.-based company, which employs 60 workers in research and development at the Landmark at Eastview office complex.

Eligen, which the company has been developing in some form for years, essentially chaperons the nutrient through the digestive system, where it would otherwise be destroyed, into the bloodstream.

Data from the study hold “real promise for improving the way we approach vitamin B12 supplementation,” said Donald W. Jacobsen, professor of molecular medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

At least 5 million people a year in the United States receive some 40 million B-12 injections to treat a range of debilitating diseases.

Shares of the company at midday were up by nearly 7 percent to $3.29 a share.

EpiCept Corp. of Eastview saw its stock price jump after it said it obtained a key European approval for Ceplene, its treatment for a common form of adult leukemia. The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued a positive opinion regarding the marketing of Ceplene. The drug is administered in conjunction with low-dose Interleuken 2. Stock of EpiCept closed today at 81 cents, up 51 cents.

Par Pharmaecuticals Co., which employs some 440 workers in Rockland County, said today it has gotten U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market a generic version of Solvay Pharmaceutical’s Marinol. The drug treats nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy treatments. The drug has annual U.S. sales of $190 million, Par said, citing industry data.

Emisphere Technologies Inc., the biopharmaceutical company with research and development operations in Eastview, said this morning that Novartis Pharma AG has launched a study to determine whether a drug is effective in treating osteoporosis in women who are past menopause. Novartis will test oral PTH134 using Emisphere’s Eligen technology. The testing is being done in Switzerland.

Nutrition 21 Inc. of Purchase said it has a dispute with an investor in its preferred stock and warrant offering that raised $17.8 million for the nutritional supplement company last fall.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said that the investor claimed that certain breaches of covenants in the offering had occurred that would require the company to buy back the preferred stock, at an estimated cost of $23.4 million.
The investor was not identified. In the filing, the company denied that any such breaches had occurred. Nutrition 21 also said the investor had asserted that option grants to the company’s co-chief executive officers, Gerard Butler and Michael Fink, had triggered anti-dilution adjustments in the conversion price of the preferred stock. The company said no adjustment is required.
Nutrition 21 stock closed yesterday at 45 cents a share, down 6.8 cents.

Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Montvale, N.J., with research and manufacturing operations in Pomona, said it has a deal to market and distribute generic versions of Bayer’s Yasmin and Yaz oral contraceptives in the United States. Bayer will provide the drugs to Barr before the patents expire, and Barr will sell them under the Barr Laboratories label. Barr said the deal allows the company to launch its own authorized generic versions of the drugs years before the patent expirations. Yasmin had reported sales of $575 million in the 12 months ending in April, while Yaz had sales of $384 million in that period.

Barr Laboratories Inc., the Pomona-based subsidiary of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., is challenging the patents held by AstraZeneca LP for the drug Entocort, which treats Crohn’s disease.

Barr filed an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January to seek the right to market a generic version of the drug. But AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company based in London, this week filed a lawsuit in federal court in Delaware to prevent Barr from selling the drug.

The drug had sales of $125 million in the United States during the year ending in March, Barr said, citing industry data.

EpiCept Corp., a pharmaceutical company in Eastview, said today it has provided regulators in Europe with a “comprehensive dossier” stating why the regulators should re-consider the company’s application to market Ceplene, a drug to prevent certain leukemia patients from suffering a relapse.

The company said that in recent months a number of medical experts have recommended the approval of Ceplene.
In March, the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued a negative opinion on Ceplene. EpiCept has asked that the decision be reviewed.

Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Eastview said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Dr. Alton B. Kremer, its senior vice president of clinical research, had resigned on May 20 to pursue other interests.
Kremer had joined the company in October 2004. Last year he was paid $380,000 in salary and a $245,000 bonus, among other compensation, according to Progenics’ proxy statement.

Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Eastview and its research partner, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, announced good and bad news concerning drug trials on its treatment for side effects of painkillers. Investors focused on the positive, and Progenics stock rose 9.79 percent today.
The companies said that a phase 2 study of an oral form of its Relistor drug for the treatment of constipation showed statistically significant improvements in patients. A phase 3 study of an intravenous form of Relistor on post-operative gastrointestinal function, however, fell short of research goals.
Progenics stock closed at $14.47, up $1.29.

Disappointing data in a clinical trial of a treatment for ovarian cancer sent stock in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Eastview tumbling today.
The company and its research partner, Sanofti-aventis of Paris, said that a phase 2 study of 215 women with advanced ovarian cancer showed no significant response to a drug called aflibercept. The compound is a fused protein that aims to inhibit the growth of tumors by starving them of blood.
Regeneron stock was down as much as 16 percent. It closed yesterday at $18.58, down $2.89 or 13.5 percent. It was down 23.1 percent for the year.
In a statement, the company said there are few treatment options for advanced ovarian cancer.
“We and Sanofi-aventis are continuing to evaluate the data from this trial in order to determine the next steps for aflibercept in advanced ovarian cancer,” Dr. George Yancopoulos, Regeneron’s president, said in the statement.
Sanofi is Regeneron’s largest shareholder, with 19 percent of its stock.
Joseph Pantginis, an analyst who follows the company for Canaccord Adams, said part of the selloff in the stock may have been related to the larger drop in the markets yesterday. The announcement contained some good news about other drug trial results, he said, and Regeneron and Sanofi are testing aflibercept in four phase 3 trials that combine the drug with chemotherapy.
“Overall, the profile of the drug still looks very promising for other indications,” said Pantginis, a former scientist at Regeneron. He said he holds no shares of company stock.

Aureon Laboratories Inc. of Yonkers said it has introduced Prostate Px®+, a commercial test to predict prostate cancer progression and disease recurrence.
The test will forecast disease progression after treatment, and will detect high-risk patients that appear as low risk and undetectable by other methods, said Dr. Ricardo Mesa-Tejada, vice president of pathology and medical director of Aureon. The test also can reclassify intermediate-risk patients, and help identify those with less aggressive forms of the disease, he said.
The announcement was made at the American Urological Association annual meeting at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

Emisphere Technologies Inc. reported today that studies involving dogs have provided additional evidence that a technology the company is developing enhances absorption of oral vitamin B12 supplements.

The results confirm an earlier report of effectiveness in studies conducted in rats using Emisphere’s Eligen technology, which reportedly improves absorption of orally administered drugs.

About 40 million Americans undergo annual B12 injections to treat a variety of serious medical conditions. An addition 5 million people yearly consume more than 600 million B12 tablets in various strengths as nutritional supplements, Emisphere said.