RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, North Carolina and ONGAR, UK (January 5, 2006) – SCYNEXIS, Inc., a medicinal chemistry-focused drug discovery and development company, has sold its wholly-owned subsidiary in the United Kingdom, SCYNEXIS Europe Limited, to its U.K. management.  The new company will operate under the name Selcia Limited. 

Dr. Hans Fliri, the Managing Director of Selcia said, “We are pleased to have this opportunity to develop our business as the only dedicated provider of custom radiolabeling, chemistry and analytics services to a worldwide customer base.” 

“The continuing rapid expansion of our business has provided us with the confidence to move forward as an independent company. We are already in the process of offering new services such as metabolomics and metabolic profiling, and their integration with chemistry,” Fliri continued.  “Our service business is based on a track record of scientific excellence at the Ongar site and a skillful, highly committed staff. We plan to increase capacity in this business and to invest in new development programs in the future.  This will create opportunities for new financial investment in the company.”

“The transaction will allow SCYNEXIS to concentrate on its core business and partners and will provide Selcia the opportunity to focus on its services”, said Dr. Yves Ribeill, President and Chief Executive Officer of SCYNEXIS, Inc.  “By doing so, SCYNEXIS can enhance our growing presence in the global pharmaceutical marketplace and continue to build discovery collaborations with major companies.” Added Ribeill, “SCYNEXIS extends its best wishes to Dr. Fliri and his highly qualified team.”

About SCYNEXIS

SCYNEXIS is a medicinal chemistry-focused drug discovery and development company headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. By combining its chemists’ extensive expertise with its proprietary, cutting-edge technologies MEDCHEM-FACTORY™, HEOS® Software Suite and Kinase Inhibitor Technology (KIT™), SCYNEXIS provides improved speed and productivity in the chemical validation of drug targets. Besides SCYNEXIS’ validated expertise in lead optimization and candidate selection, SCYNEXIS also offers a comprehensive suite of drug discovery and development services that include novel directed hit generation compounds, hit explosion and lead optimization services, process optimization, purification and analysis of compound libraries, bioanalytical services and the production of GMP clinical samples.  To learn more, visit www.scynexis.com.

About Selcia

 

SELCIA is a provider of customized solutions for life sciences R&D, specializing in custom radiolabeling, analytical technologies and their integration with synthetic chemistry. The company produces radiolabeled versions of pharmaceutical and agricultural drug candidates by GMP principles. Products come with a GLP quality data pack and are suitable for use in human trials. Selcia has a wide range of analytical technologies ranging from structural analysis, metabolite identification, GLP analysis of registration batches to biomarker identification and metabolomics. A particular strength of SELCIA is the combined application of metabolomics, isotope chemistry and chemistry.

For more information, visit www.selcia.com. 

SCYNEXIS Media Contact:                                    

Rick Rountree

Rick Rountree Communications (+1) 919 878-1144   rick@rickrountree.com

Selcia Media Contact:         

Andy Matthews  O₂PR +44 (0) 1223-309500  andy.matthews@o2pr.co.uk 

SCYNEXIS Market Development

Terry Marquardt (+1) 919 544-8603 Terry.marquardt@scynexis.com   

Selcia Market Development Contact: 

Dave Roberts +44 (0) 1277-367003 dave.roberts@selcia.com