Cambridge, UK and California, USA, 19 September 2005 - De Novo Pharmaceuticals, a world leader in computational drug design, has launched “Reflex”, a major upgrade to its leading in silico drug design platform, SkelGen®.

When designing small molecule candidate drugs, Reflex enables SkelGen to take into account the rotational flexibility of amino acids in the target enzyme active site. This advanced capability significantly enhances the platform’s versatility and performance.

SkelGen, De Novo’s automated drug design programme, can perform rotational changes “on-the-fly” whilst novel ligands are constructed within the target active site. The significant advantage of this development is that SkelGen can now explore the continuously changing shapes of the cavity within the active site of a target enzyme, more closely mimicking the dynamics of real-life protein-ligand interactions.

Bill Harris, Director of Drug Design at De Novo, commented: “The introduction of Reflex further secures De Novo’s position at the forefront of in silico drug design. The extension of our capabilities into the prediction of feasible receptor conformations and the simultaneous design of novel ligands for those alternate states, means we are no longer constrained to the static structures provided by X-ray crystallography.”

Philip Dean, CEO of De Novo, added: “Our drug discovery partners are seeking rapid ways to find novel and active hit molecules for their protein targets and SkelGen has already proved it can deliver. The addition of Reflex to the platform is an important innovation that will keep us well ahead of the competition and enable us to provide higher quality designs for our customers.”

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Northbank Communications Ltd
Lorna Watson or Sue Charles
Tel: +44 (0)20 7886 8150
l.watson@northbankcommunications.com
s.charles@northbankcommunications.com

De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Dr Philip Dean, CSO
Tel: +44 (0)1223 238000
Philip.Dean@denovopharma.com

NOTES TO EDITORS:

ABOUT DE NOVO PHARMACEUTICALS

De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd is the world leader in computational drug design. The Company provides services to drug discovery customers seeking rapid progress from validated target to novel hits, and to medicinal chemistry groups interested in focused libraries.

Using its proprietary computational software, De Novo creates novel, patentable lead molecules as candidates for drug development against both enzyme and receptor based targets. The Company’s proprietary algorithms can rapidly convert ligand information or protein structure information into new chemical designs, maximising the value within a pharmaceutical partner’s research portfolio.

De Novo was founded in 2000 and employs around 20 people in its headquarters in Cambridge, UK, and its USA office in Santa Rosa, CA. It is a venture-backed private company and its investors include Merlin Biosciences, Prelude Ventures, Life Science Partners, Avlar Bioventures, Quester Capital Management, Cambridge Gateway Fund, FNI Venture Capital, Hoffman La Roche and Incyte Capital.

For more information about De Novo, our technology and how we work with our partners please visit our website at www.denovopharma.com .