Bio Screening Industry News

Munich and Freiburg, Germany, May 7, 2008 / b3c newswire / – CRELUX and ProQinase announced today that they have entered into a joint agreement to supply customers with crystal-grade protein kinases and readily available kinase complex structures.

Under the agreement, CRELUX and ProQinase will establish and continuously expand an off-the-shelf crystal-grade protein kinase portfolio, optimized and quality-controlled for successful crystallization. In addition, the two companies will work closely together to provide new crystal-grade protein or crystal structures, tailored to meet customers’ needs.

Recombinant protein kinases, optimized for crystallization, will be produced and exclusively marketed by ProQinase, while CRELUX will continue to provide customers with crystallization and x-ray crystallography services. CRELUX will support ProQinase by performing crystallization quality control for each crystal grade protein batch. At the same time, ProQinase will grant CRELUX privileged direct access to kinase crystal-grade protein.

“This new joint crystal-grade kinase platform offers tremendous advantages: It enables us to continue to focus on our core expertise – complex structure solution – while leveraging the expertise of ProQinase to significantly strengthen our capacities in protein expression,” commented Dr. Michael Schäffer, CEO of CRELUX.

“The combination of CRELUX’s expertise in protein crystallography and ProQinase’s know-how in kinase cloning and expression makes the two companies the partners of choice for all customers interested in kinase crystallography,” noted Dr. Christoph Schächtele, CEO of ProQinase.

CRELUX has used its state-of-the-art structural biology platform to solve more than 250 crystal and co-crystal structures for pharma and biotech companies. This platform encompasses all steps – from target cloning and expression all the way to high-throughput protein crystallization and in-house x-ray crystallography.

ProQinase, as part of its integrated protein kinase technology platform, offers more than 150 recombinant human protein kinases – all produced in-house – and provides all types of in vitro testing services, with more than 220 protein kinases.

Notes to editors

CRELUX GmbH ( www.crelux.com) provides fast and affordable access to co-crystal structures for biotech and pharma companies worldwide. Three dimensional structures of target-compound complexes are unique sources of information during the rational drug discovery process. Straightforward availability of structural data at an early stage of the drug development process significantly enhances productivity and success rates during hit selection, lead generation, and lead optimization. CRELUX has streamlined the processes of structure generation and solved hundreds of co-crystal structures using an integrated technology platform. In addition to customer designed projects crystallization conditions of numerous relevant therapeutic targets are available within the Off-The-Shelf Program of CRELUX. Off-The-Shelf target structures are delivered at a fixed price and short turn around times, facilitating affordable access to structural information.

ProQinase GmbH ( www.proqinase.com) provides an Integrated Protein Kinase Technology (iProKiTe®) Platform for preclinical drug development of protein kinase inhibitors. More than 150 highly active recombinant kinases are offered for sale and more than 220 kinases are available for in vitro testing services (HTS and selectivity profiling etc.). Cellular and in vivo test systems including orthotopic tumor models allow further testing of lead compounds. A Clinical biomarker analysis service supports the evaluation of clinical trials.

Conference Returns to Location of its Inaugural Event on March 16-19, 2009

Carlsbad, USA and Madrid, Spain, April 9, 2008 – Coming on the heels of BIO-Europe Spring 2008 in Madrid where delegates engaged in an incredible 5800 one-to-one meetings, EBD Group today announced that the third annual BIO-Europe Spring 2009 partnering conference will be returning to Milan, Italy, the site of its highly successful inaugural event. BIO-Europe Spring 2009 will open its doors at the Milano Convention Center (MIC), March 16-18, 2009

BIO-Europe Spring in only its second year has become the second largest dedicated partnering event in the biotechnology industry.  Biotechnology companies from around the world participate in BIO-Europe Spring to identify and meet with companies across the life science value-chain, from large biotech and pharma companies to financiers and innovative start-ups.

Commenting on the return of BIO-Europe Spring to Milan, Professor Rossi Bernardi, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Human Capital, The City of Milan, stated: “The City of Milan, which has been recently chosen by BIE as host of the world exhibition EXPO 2015, is looking forward to host the 2009 edition of BIO-Europe Spring.”

“We are excited that BIO-Europe Spring is returning to Italy. The conference is a unique opportunity for leaders of the global biotech and pharma community to meet in a setting conducive to doing business,” said  Edoardo Richter, Director International Division, Angelini Group. “As an Italian pharmaceutical company, the BIO-Europe Spring event helps to shine more light on the rapid progress of our industry, the exceptional quality of our scientific programs and the great potential for partnering with Italian firms.

“We look forward to bringing BIO-Europe Spring back to the city of Milan and another highly productive and dynamic conference,” said Carola Schropp, President of EBD Group. “Partnering has become the life blood of our industry. This is a phenomenon readily apparent to anyone attending the currently in-session BIO-Europe Spring 2008 in Madrid, where 1400 delegates from 838 companies are engaging in over 5800 partnering meetings.

About EBD Group:

EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global biotechnology industry. Since 1993, firms in the life sciences have leveraged EBD Group’s partnering conferences, technology and services to identify opportunities and to develop strategic relationships that drive their business.

EBD Group’s conferences (run in collaboration with leading industry partners and international trade associations) include BIO-Europe, the world’s largest stand-alone life science partnering conference (organized with the support of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, BIO); BIO-Europe Spring(R); BioPharm America(TM) (EBD’s new North American partnering event); and BioEquity Europe (co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO).

EBD’s sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE(TM), is also used at numerous third-party events around the world. Outside of the conference format, EBD’s consultants can provide hands-on assistance for firms seeking to in- or out-license products and technologies. EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.

For more information visit www.ebdgroup.com

By extracting information from a freely-available chemical database, Italian forensic scientists have come up with a simple but highly effective method for identifying unknown toxicological compounds in biological samples.

A central component of forensic analysis and drug testing, toxicological analyses of biological samples have traditionally been conducted using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), with compounds identified by comparing the resultant mass spectra with reference mass spectra in spectral databases.

Although effective at identifying toxicological compounds, this approach has certain limitations, such as the fact that GC/MS is not very good at detecting polar and non-volatile compounds. Liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with MS offers a more flexible alternative, able to identify both polar and non-volatile compounds. However, it suffers from an inability to produce as detailed mass spectra as GC/MS, which has prevented the construction of large spectral databases for LC/MS. According to Aldo Polettini of the University of Verona, LC/MS databases generally contain spectra for only around 1200 compounds, compared to spectra for tens of thousands of compounds in GC/MS databases.

In recent years, however, a type of MS known as time-of-flight (TOF) has opened up another way of identifying toxicological compounds with LC/MS. TOF-MS measures the masses of charged molecules based on the time they take to travel along a chamber to a detector under the influence of an electric field, with smaller molecules travelling faster than larger molecules. This allows it to make measurements of molecular mass that are so accurate that they can be used to determine a compound’s chemical formula, and thereby also its identity.

The problem is that there aren’t any major databases containing information on molecular mass and chemical formulae specifically for toxicological compounds, so Polettini decided to create one. The easiest way to do this is to extract data for toxicological compounds from an existing chemical database and Polettini chose to do this with the US National Institutes of Health’s PubChem Compound. This is freely-available on the internet and comprises around 10 million entries, each of which contains information on a compound’s molecular mass and chemical formula.

Together with colleagues, Polettini created a subset of these entries by extracting all the compounds that could be classified as toxicological and then screening them based on their molecular mass and whether they contain elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen or fluorine. This resulted in a subset database containing entries for 50,500 toxicological compounds, including many drug molecules, both pharmaceutical and recreational, pesticides and poisons, as well as metabolites.

‘It contains a large number of metabolites,’ explains Polettini, ‘including glucuronides, which are very important in general unknown screening, especially when metabolite-rich biological matrices are used (e.g. urine).’

Once the database was up and running, all Polettini and his team needed to do to determine the chemical formula of an unknown toxicological compound was to match the molecular mass revealed by TOF-MS with the matching mass in their database. Testing this approach on hair, blood and urine samples from subjects that had taken pharmaceutical or recreational drugs, they found that they were able to identify a whole host of relevant toxicological compounds.

Predictably, the only problem they found was that a specific molecular mass can match more than one chemical formula and a specific chemical formula can match more than one toxicological compound. But the correct compound could usually be pinpointed by simply taking other available information into account, such as some of the spectral data produced by TOF-MS.

A molecule’s retention time in LC can also offer a way to chose between competing identities. To this end, Polettini is now attempting to enhance the database by incorporating an algorithm for estimating the retention time for proposed compounds. These estimates can then be compared with the actual retention time of the detected compound to help reveal the correct identity.

Hamburg, Germany | Oxford, UK - Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT) announced today that the Company and Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Osaka, Japan) signed a new drug discovery agreement targeting a protease chosen by Ono.

The collaboration applies Evotec’s proprietary fragment-based drug discovery platform, EVOlutionTM to identify novel, small molecular weight compounds active against a protease target. The platform integrates, among other things, protein X-ray crystallography, computational chemistry, structural biology, biochemical, and NMR based fragment screening in combination with its high-quality fragment libraries. In the collaboration it is combined with Evotec’s expertise in medicinal chemistry and ADMET to further characterize active compounds identified and optimize their potency and selectivity to generate molecules for subsequent progression into clinical trials.

Under the agreement, Ono will pay to Evotec initial payments (technology access fee) for access to Evotec’s fragment-based drug discovery platform, EVOlutionTM, research funding as well as success-based milestones based on the research progress.

Dr Mark Ashton, Executive Vice President Business Development Services at Evotec, said: “We are extremely pleased that Evotec’s capabilities in drug discovery and, in particular, our proprietary EVOlutionTM platform for fragment-based drug discovery, have been so highly regarded by Ono and that they have chosen us as their partner for this collaboration.  We are confident that Evotec will contribute to Ono’s drug discovery program.”

“We have the highest regards for the wide range of drug discovery technologies Evotec possesses and highly anticipate the collaboration will result in identifying a novel drug having high potentials” said Daikichi Fukushima, Ph.D., Managing Director, Research Headquarters at Ono.

Forward looking statements
Information set forth in this report contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the anticipated benefits of Evotec’s products and services, the payments that Evotec may receive under its collaboration agreement with Ono, the anticipated timing and results of Evotec’s clinical and pre-clinical programs, and other statements that are not historical facts. Evotec cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information as a result of risks and uncertainties. These include risks and uncertainties relating to: Evotec’s ability to satisfy the research-based milestones under the agreement with Ono, Evotec’s ability to complete the merger because conditions to the closing of the merger may not be satisfied; the failure to successfully integrate the businesses of Evotec and Renovis; unexpected costs or liabilities resulting from the merger; the risk that synergies from the merger may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; disruption from the merger making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers; competition and its effect on pricing, spending, third-party relationships and revenues; the need to develop new products and adapt to significant technological change; implementation of strategies for improving internal growth; development, use and protection of intellectual property; general worldwide economic conditions and related uncertainties; future legislative, regulatory, or tax changes as well as other economic, business and/or competitive factors; and the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on international operations.

The risks included above are not exhaustive. The Registration Statement on Form F-4 filed by Evotec with the Securities and Exchange Commission contains additional factors that could impact the combined company’s businesses and financial performance. The parties expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in the parties’ expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Hamburg, Germany | Oxford, UK | Oslo, Norway - Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT) announced today that Spermatech A/S has chosen them as a partner to identify small molecule therapeutics for their pharmaceutical discovery project.

Through the study of the physiology of sperm motility, more specifically of “rapid swimmers” that cause fertilisation, Spermatech have identified bio-logical targets that could be exploited in the development of non-hormonal reversible male contraceptives. On this basis, Evotec and Spermatech have defined a strategy for a tailored drug discovery project. Evotec will apply its expertise and proprietary technologies in assay development, high throughput screening and NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) screening to identify inhibitors of the sperm specific target protein. The screening will be performed with Evotec’s screening library of 250,000 drug-like compounds. Compounds will be identified that reduce sperm motility and will be used in the development of non-hormonal reversible male contraceptives at Spermatech. In addition, compounds that promote target activity may be evaluated as supporters of male fertility.

Dr Mark Ashton, Executive Vice President Business Development Services at Evotec, said: “We are extremely pleased that Spermatech has selected Evotec for this interesting project. It will allow us to use our com-bined technologies in assay development, high-throughput screening and NMR screening to identify the most promising candidates in the therapeutic field. Evotec’s highly diverse compound library is a good starting point to identify such active molecules and the additional results from NMR investi-gations of the hits with the target protein will provide the medicinal chemists with useful information to support subsequent drug design.”

“We were impressed by Evotec’s highly specialized and integrated capabili-ties. The collaboration will provide us with access to state-of-the-art assay development and screening technology and expertise together with a high quality library of small molecules. We are confident that this will provide an excellent starting point and valuable information to progress the molecules into more advanced stages. We really appreciated that during the initial scientific discussions of the project Evotec clearly demonstrated a results-oriented spirit in support of our project:” commented Eirik Næss-Ulseth, Chief Executive Officer, Spermatech.

Forward looking statements
Information set forth in this report contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the anticipated benefits of Evotec’s products and services, the payments that Evotec may receive under its collaboration agreement with Spermatech, the anticipated timing and results of Evotec’s clinical and pre-clinical programs, and other statements that are not historical facts. Evotec cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information as a result of risks and uncertainties. These include risks and uncertainties relating to: Evotec’s ability to complete the merger because conditions to the closing of the merger may not be satisfied; the failure to successfully integrate the businesses of Evotec and Renovis; unexpected costs or liabilities resulting from the merger; the risk that synergies from the merger may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; disruption from the merger making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers; competition and its effect on pricing, spending, third-party relationships and revenues; the need to develop new products and adapt to significant technological change; implementation of strategies for improving internal growth; development, use and protection of intellectual property; general worldwide economic conditions and related uncertainties; future legislative, regulatory, or tax changes as well as other economic, business and/or competitive factors; and the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on international operations.

The risks included above are not exhaustive. The Registration Statement on Form F-4 filed by Evotec with the Securities and Exchange Commission contains additional factors that could impact the combined company’s businesses and financial performance. The parties expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in the parties’ expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The drug discovery process has changed dramatically over the past decade and continues to evolve in response to new discoveries and technologies. There is also increasing demand to produce more drug candidates and decrease attrition during drug development. Recent advances in cell culture robotic technology have grown out of the need to maximise efficiency and minimise the possibility of errors, contamination and failure associated with high-throughput cell culture.

In addition, the trends towards assay miniaturisation and multiplexing for high-throughput and ultrahigh-throughput have been triggered by the necessity to reduce development and operational costs. Despite advances in cell based assay technology, numerous bottlenecks still need to be addressed in drug discovery for the identification of novel drug candidates.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.drugdiscovery.frost.com), European Cell Based Assays Markets, finds that the market for cell based assay kits earned revenues of $66.2 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach $220.1 in 2014.

As pharmaceutical companies strive to improve the cost effectiveness of their drug discovery programmes, it is becoming apparent that considerable amounts of money are lost on compounds that fail late in the drug discovery process because of their toxicity.

“Over the past decade, various initiatives have been taken to improve the science of predicting toxicity and improving extrapolation to humans, including the use of cell based assays to enhance predictions,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Dr. Laleh Safinia. “The revolution in the drug discovery process has recently demonstrated emerging lab disciplines and technology platforms in the area of cell based assay screening, holding great promise for the discovery of new drug targets.”

Drug targets derived from genomics and proteomics projects have sparked the interest of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and drug discovery companies in screening large numbers of compounds using cell based assays in an ultrahigh-throughput format. Progress and advances in a number of technologies have made the utilisation of live cells in high-throughput screening and high-content screening assays an attractive option in the drug discovery process.

Partnerships and alliances between active participants within this industry will allow the acquisition of new molecules, increase profitability and offer a pipeline of other drugs in development as well as remove some of the bottlenecks within drug discovery.

Cell based assays are an important aspect of the drug discovery process. However, there is a growing need for reliable and robust assay kits to enable the effective standardisation of assays and a reduction in variability. For researchers using automated screening systems, the stability and compatibility of reagents with robotic components is often a concern, resulting in high cost of operation.

“The assay reagent must be stable at ambient temperature; signal generated by the assay should be stable for an adequate period of time to be able to monitor cells over a period of time,” says Dr. Safinia. “Thus, HTS requires the optimisation of HTS assays and protocols. Approximately $200 million could be saved through more productive discovery programs or cell based assay screens that boost clinical success rates.”

With the increase in demand for new drugs, the degree of competition among the drug discovery companies is also intensifying. The initial investment is considerable; however, the scope for new drug target and profit margins is also high.

“There is, therefore, a heightened need for target validation technology to verify the correct target through advances in assay protocols, novel technologies and reliable data analyses,” comments Dr. Safinia. “Identifying the correct drug target through the use of genomics, proteomics and chemical libraries for drug discovery is a critical bottleneck in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.”

There have been tremendous efforts by the pharmaceutical industry to improve cell based screening platforms to expedite target validation as well as for use in preclinical trials. In order to understand the complexity of biological systems and accelerate the hit-to-lead process, recent advances in microfluidic technologies and automation have attracted a lot of attention with promising applications in cell based biosensors and drug screening.

In addition, considerable efforts are being made to improve the science of predicting the toxicology of emerging clinical candidates to reduce the ADME/Tox failure of drug candidates.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the European cell based assays markets, then send an e-mail to Patrick Cairns, Corporate Communications, at pcairns_pr@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

European Cell Based Assays Markets is part of the Drug Discovery Technologies Growth Partnership Service programme, which also includes research in the following markets: Contract Research Organisations (CROs) Markets in Europe, Nucleic Acid Isolation Markets in Europe and Advances in Laboratory Automation Markets in Europe. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Interviews with the press are available.

Frost & Sullivan, the Global Growth Consulting Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company’s Growth Partnership Services, Growth Consulting and Career Best Practices empower clients to create a growth focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com.

European Cell Based Assays Markets

HAMBURG, Germany and OXFORD, England and OSLO, March 12, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Evotec AG announced today that Spermatech A/S has chosen them as a partner to identify small molecule therapeutics for their pharmaceutical discovery project.

Through the study of the physiology of sperm motility, more specifically of “rapid swimmers” that cause fertilisation, Spermatech have identified biological targets that could be exploited in the development of non-hormonal reversible male contraceptives. On this basis, Evotec and Spermatech have defined a strategy for a tailored drug discovery project. Evotec will apply its expertise and proprietary technologies in assay development, high throughput screening and NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) screening to identify inhibitors of the sperm specific target protein. The screening will be performed with Evotec’s screening library of 250,000 drug-like compounds. Compounds will be identified that reduce sperm motility and will be used in the development of non-hormonal reversible male contraceptives at Spermatech. In addition, compounds that promote target activity may be evaluated as supporters of male fertility.

Dr Mark Ashton, Executive Vice President Business Development Services at Evotec, said: “We are extremely pleased that Spermatech has selected Evotec for this interesting project. It will allow us to use our combined technologies in assay development, high-throughput screening and NMR screening to identify the most promising candidates in the therapeutic field. Evotec’s highly diverse compound library is a good starting point to identify such active molecules and the additional results from NMR investigations of the hits with the target protein will provide the medicinal chemists with useful information to support subsequent drug design.”

“We were impressed by Evotec’s highly specialized and integrated capabilities. The collaboration will provide us with access to state-of-the-art assay development and screening technology and expertise together with a high quality library of small molecules. We are confident that this will provide an excellent starting point and valuable information to progress the molecules into more advanced stages. We really appreciated that during the initial scientific discussions of the project Evotec clearly demonstrated a results-oriented spirit in support of our project.” commented Eirik Naess-Ulseth, Chief Executive Officer, Spermatech.

Forward looking statements

Information set forth in this report contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the anticipated benefits of Evotec’s products and services, the payments that Evotec may receive under its collaboration agreement with Spermatech, the anticipated timing and results of Evotec’s clinical and pre-clinical programs, and other statements that are not historical facts. Evotec cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information as a result of risks and uncertainties. These include risks and uncertainties relating to: Evotec’s ability to complete the merger because conditions to the closing of the merger may not be satisfied; the failure to successfully integrate the businesses of Evotec and Renovis; unexpected costs or liabilities resulting from the merger; the risk that synergies from the merger may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; disruption from the merger making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers; competition and its effect on pricing, spending, third-party relationships and revenues; the need to develop new products and adapt to significant technological change; implementation of strategies for improving internal growth; development, use and protection of intellectual property; general worldwide economic conditions and related uncertainties; future legislative, regulatory, or tax changes as well as other economic, business and/or competitive factors; and the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on international operations.

The risks included above are not exhaustive. The Registration Statement on Form F-4 filed by Evotec with the Securities and Exchange Commission contains additional factors that could impact the combined company’s businesses and financial performance. The parties expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in the parties’ expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Copenhagen & Aarhus Denmark, March 11, 2007 — CLC bio and Department of Biology, Faculty of Science at University of Copenhagen, have signed a site license agreement for CLC bio’s premier bioinformatics software solution, CLC Combined Workbench, in combination with CLC bio’s Educational Suite. The deal runs for five years and is for several hundred seats, giving every researcher, student and teacher access to the software at all times.

The Head of Department of Biology at University of Copenhagen, Professor Dr. Lene Lange states,
‘We chose CLC bio as our solution provider as CLC Combined Workbench provides cutting edge algorithms and analyses of a high scientific standard, which is fundamental for our research. Also the wide range of tools available in this single application will eliminate a lot of tedious tasks, importing, exporting, and converting data between various applications - and thus help us improve our workflow, freeing up valuable time for research. We’re also looking forward to using CLC Educational Suite as a solid backbone for our bioinformatics courses.’

University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biology is organized in different Research Centers which are involved in international top tier research collaborations. They are funded from sources like the European Union and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. The many projects range from retrieval of ancient DNA from fossils (Center for Ancient Genetics), bioinformatics, gene regulations and SNP (Cancer Research), complex dependent mutations, primates genome evolution (The Genomics Group), whole genome sequencing of hyperthermophilic archaea bacteria (Archaea Biology Group), muscle biology (Copenhagen Muscle Research Center) to studies of how climate changes affects distribution of life on Earth (Center for Macroecology).

CLC Combined Workbench is a comprehensive software solution for advanced DNA, RNA, and protein analyses, containing all features of CLC DNA Workbench, CLC RNA Workbench, and CLC Protein Workbench in one, integrated software package. The program will replace the whole range of outdated and expensive tools, which the research centers have been using previously. CLC Combined Workbench is available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux

About CLC bio
CLC bio is the world’s leading full-service bioinformatics solution provider, solely focusing on the development of bioinformatics: software, hardware, data analysis, and custom-designed bioinformatics algorithms.

CLC bio’s mission is to be among the most innovative bioinformatics companies in the 21st century. This is realized through:

Development of bioinformatics software and hardware based on the latest scientific findings
User-friendly, integrated and intuitive cross-platform software solutions
Continuous focus on customer needs and superior customer service
Frequent product updates including the latest IT technologies and bioinformatics algorithms
A flexible IT architecture, enabling customers to buy or develop individualized solutions at a reasonable price

Hamburg, Germany | Oxford, UK- Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT) today announced that InterMune, Inc., has signed a second drug discovery contract with Evotec.

Evotec will support InterMune’s research efforts using their medicinal chemistry know-how. In addition, they will utilize their expertise and technologies in computational chemistry, protein production, X-Ray crystallography and ADMET to further characterize active compounds and optimize their potency and selectivity to generate lead molecules for subsequent progression into clinical trials.

This contract expands Evotec’s existing collaboration with InterMune which was initiated in early 2007. This collaboration applies Evotec’s fragment-based drug discovery platform, EVOlutionTM, in combination with their ultra-high-throughput screening (uHTS) technologies to InterMune’s targets.  To date new lead series have been identified for further optimization. Evotec also provides medicinal chemistry, secondary screening, protein production, X-ray crystallography and ADMET. The financial terms include a technology access fee for access to Evotec’s fragment-based drug discovery platform, EVOlutionTM, plus ongoing research funding.

“With the support of Evotec, InterMune has made considerable progress in their Hepatitis C drug discovery and development program. We are pleased that InterMune saw the value in our proprietary fragment-based drug discovery technology and that it has contributed to the success to their research efforts,” said Dr Mark Ashton, Executive Vice President Business Development Services at Evotec.

SASSARI, Italy & PRINCETON, N.J. - (Business Wire) ViroStatics, srl, a privately-held pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of combination therapeutics in HIV/AIDS, virology, and other chronic diseases, today announced the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). Chaired by Daniel Kuritzkes, MD, Director of AIDS Research, Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, the Board will provide the Company with valuable assistance in determining and managing the scientific mission as well as the prioritization and operation of its scientific and clinical activities.“Our Scientific Advisory Board is composed of six internationally renowned experts in the fields of clinical research, pharmacology, and immunology,” said Franco Lori, MD, President and CEO of Virostatics. “Each of them has made significant contributions to the scientific understanding of HIV/AIDS. We are confident that our Board members will provide ViroStatics with important insight and guidance as we continue the Phase II development of our lead combination product in HIV, VS411, as well as continuing our aggressive screening of new compounds to combat the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.”

The members of the Virostatics SAB are:

Daniel R. Kuritzkes, MD

Scientific Advisory Board Chairman

Daniel R. Kuritzkes, MD is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of AIDS Research, Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is Head of the Section of Retroviral Therapeutics for the Harvard Division of AIDS. Dr. Kuritzkes also serves as Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) and is the Principal Investigator of the Harvard Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Unit.

Charles Flexner, MD

Charles Flexner, MD is Professor of Medicine in the Divisions of Clinical Pharmacology and Infectious Diseases, and Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. In addition, Dr. Flexner is Professor of International Health (Bloomberg School of Public Health) and Principal Investigator for the Johns Hopkins University AIDS Clinical Trials Unit.

Roy M. Gulick, MD, MPH

Roy “Trip” Gulick, MD, MPH, is Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York and Director of the Cornell HIV Clinical Trials Unit. He also is a Board Member of the International AIDS Society-USA, and a member of the Panel on Clinical Practices for Treatment of HIV Infection of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Within the ACTG, he chairs the Steering Committee of the Optimization of Antiretroviral Therapy Committee.

Michael M. Lederman, MD

Michael M. Lederman, MD is the Scott R. Inkley Professor of Medicine and Professor of Molecular Biology/Microbiology, Pathology and Biomedical Ethics at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland where he is director of the Center for AIDS Research. He is a member of the American Association of Immunologists, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the HIV Medicine Association.

Guido Silvestri, MD

Guido Silvestri, MD is an Associate Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as Director of Clinical Virology. Dr. Silvestri directs an NIH-funded research laboratory that conducts studies of AIDS pathogenesis and vaccines. Dr. Silvestri’s work has elucidated the mechanisms by which SIV infection of natural hosts is not followed by progression to AIDS, thus providing important insights on how HIV infection causes immunodeficiency in humans.

Mark A. Wainberg, PhD

Dr. Mark A. Wainberg is Director of the McGill University AIDS Centre and Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Wainberg, an internationally recognized scientist in the field of HIV/AIDS, has made many contributions to the study of the reverse transcriptase of HIV-1 in regard to basic mechanisms of action, inhibition by anti-viral drugs, drug resistance, and HIV replication. He served as President of the International AIDS Society between 1998 and 2000 and was Co-Chair of the XVI International AIDS Conference in 2006.

About Virostatics

Virostatics srl, an Italian pharmaceutical company with operations in Sassari and Pavia, Italy and Princeton, NJ, is committed to discovering and developing novel combination therapeutics to address significant medical needs in HIV/AIDS, chronic infections and related fields. The company is developing its lead product, VS411, as a fixed-dose combination of two drugs to not only decrease HIV replication but to also protect and conserve the immune system. VS411 has completed Phase I and is moving into a multinational Phase II development program. Virostatics has developed a proprietary screening methodology to rapidly and efficiently identify cytostatic agents with potential to control the over-stimulation of the immune system that is believed to drive the progression of HIV to AIDS. Virostatics is committed to expanding its pipeline and product portfolio by in-licensing early- and late-stage compounds and exploring co-development opportunities that fit the Company’s expertise in specialty pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals in HIV/AIDS. For more information, visit virostatics.com.

Virostatics srl
Michael Stevens, PharmD
609-987-2305
Chief Development Officer
m.stevens@virostatics.com