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ST. LOUIS, MO,
24th May 2006
- Sigma-Aldrich (Nasdaq: SIAL), a leading $1.7 billion
Life Science company, announced today that it has entered an exclusive
arrangement with Rosetta Inpharmatics LLC to access the company's proprietary
and patent pending bioinformatics design tools for siRNA research and
development purposes.
Sigma-Aldrich and Rosetta Inpharmatics LLC, a
wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., have signed an exclusive license
agreement that will provide RNAi researchers with cutting-edge siRNA design
technology for enhanced performance through improved specificity and
silencing. Sigma- Aldrich plans to utilize Rosetta Inpharmatics' design
technology to launch human and model organism siRNA whole genome libraries, to
deliver siRNA panels targeted to specific gene families, and to provide access
to single-target pre-designed siRNAs through an enhanced web
interface on Sigma-Aldrich's award-winning web
site. Researchers will have access to these products that will be manufactured
worldwide by its Sigma Genosys and Proligo operations. This milestone
agreement marks the latest of a number of licensing and equity deals that
position Sigma-Aldrich as a leader in RNAi with best-in-class gene silencing
technology.
"The expertise and recognition Rosetta
Inpharmatics has in the area of bioinformatics is world-class," said Shaf
Yousaf, President of Sigma-Aldrich's Research Biotechnology Business Unit. "We
are excited to create this powerful relationship and continue our goal of
providing cutting-edge tools to enable life science research."
Douglas Bassett, Jr., Executive Director,
Informatics at Rosetta Inpharmatics, said: "We are excited to work with
Sigma-Aldrich. It offers the opportunity for our most advanced siRNA design
technology to be leveraged in the marketplace to provide enhanced knock-down
for low expressed genes in concert with reduced off-target effects."
Sigma-Aldrich has made a major commitment to the
fast developing area of RNAi. This commitment began with the establishment of
a research collaboration with The RNAi Consortium (TRC), which consists of a
partnership among the Broad Institute, MIT, Harvard, Dana Farber and other
research organizations and several major pharmaceutical companies. This was
followed by a license with MIT to make and sell the shRNA libraries developed
by TRC and, subsequently, the introduction of Sigma-Aldrich's MISSION™
TRC shRNA Libraries. The acquisition of Proligo secured Sigma-Aldrich's
ability to synthesize RNA and provided access to one of only four licenses to
a key MIT patent for RNAi. Additional agreements with Alnylam, Benitec and
Oxford BioMedica provide Sigma-Aldrich with a major intellectual property
portfolio in RNAi.
About Sigma-Aldrich:
Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life
Science and High Technology company. Its biochemical and organic
chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research,
biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key
components in pharmaceutical and other high technology manufacturing. The
Company has customers in life science companies, university and government
institutions, hospitals, and in industry. Over one million scientists and
technologists use its products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 35 countries and has
7,000 employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is
committed to Accelerating Customer Success through Leadership in
Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information
about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning web
site at sigma-aldrich.com.
Cautionary Statement:
This release contains forward-looking
statements relating to future performance, goals, strategic actions and
initiatives and similar intentions and beliefs and other statements regarding
the Companies' expectations, goals, beliefs, intentions and the like, which
involve assumptions regarding the Companies' operations and conditions in the
markets the Companies serves. The Companies do not undertake any obligation to
update these forward-looking statements.
Media enquiries to Northbank Communications:
Marc Egelhofer, Tel: +44 (0)1260 296505 m.egelhofer@northbankcommunications.com At Sigma-Aldrich: Sean Battles, +1-314-286-7616
Christina Bailey,
+1-314-713-5784
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