Prolysis and Proteom Announce Drug Discovery Agreement

Oxford and Cambridge, UK, 2nd December 2004 - Prolysis Ltd, a company focused on the discovery and development of novel antibacterial agents, and Proteom Ltd, an in silico molecular design company, today announced a drug discovery agreement focused on the optimisation of Prolysis' Lead antibiotic programmes.

As part of this agreement, ProtoScreen(tm) and ProtoBuild(tm), Proteom's proprietary in silico screening and de novo design technology, will be used to augment the progress made by Prolysis in the design of new classes of antibiotics targeting bacterial cell division.

Prolysis leads the industry in the discovery and development of novel inhibitors of bacterial cell division. This has been achieved through the application of its proprietary whole-cell assay technology complemented by unique structural insights gained through protein crystallography and medicinal chemistry from its technology partners, Professor David Rice of the University of Sheffield and Evotec OAI.

Dr Steve Ruston, Prolysis CEO commented:

"There is an urgent clinical need for new classes of antibiotics to tackle the rising incidence of drug-resistant bacterial infection. Prolysis is rising to this challenge through its development of a portfolio of novel antibacterial agents."

Dr Bill Hamilton, COO of Proteom added:

"We are delighted to be working on this project with Prolysis. We hope to add significant value to the structural insights already developed by Prolysis on its targets"

-Ends-

Notes to Editor

About Prolysis Ltd
Prolysis, based in Oxfordshire, UK, is a research and development company focused on the creation of medicines to address the spreading crisis of antibiotic resistance. The Company is exploiting unique insights into bacterial cell biology to create the new broad-spectrum antibiotics that are urgently needed to treat resistant hospital and community-acquired infections. Prolysis has an internal expertise in bacterial cell biology and combines this with structural biology and medicinal chemistry from technology partners to create a multi-project preclinical portfolio. Prolysis will commercialise its new antibiotics by out-licensing after demonstrating proof-of-concept in human Phase IIa studies.

For further information visit the Prolysis website at www.prolysis.com

About Proteom Ltd
Proteom, based in Cambridge, UK, is a biotechnology company specializing in the in silico design of small molecule ligands. The Company's state-of-the-art technology platform includes ProtoBuild(tm), a de novo design application, and ProtoScreen(tm), a virtual screening tool. Proteom currently provides in silico design/screening services to companies requiring cutting edge computational design capabilities for their drug discovery programmes.

For further information visit the Proteom website at www.proteom.com