AnalytiCon Discovery: Successful collaboration with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo in search of Novel Drugs based on New Compound Libraries
Successful collaboration with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. in search of Novel Drugs based on New Compound Libraries from Hydroxy-prolines

Potsdam (July 15, 2004) - AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH (AnalytiCon), a worldwide specialist in the search of novel active molecules from natural products reported a first success in identifying biologically active semi-synthetic substances for novel medicaments in collaboration with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd.(KHK), the Japanese pharmaceutical and biochemicals corporation. KHK has developed a new microbial technology to produce cis-3-hydroxy-proline and trans-4-hydroxy-proline and KHK provided these small natural products with excellent functional groups to AnalytiCon for the development of new compound libraries.

Only 18 months after the beginning of the co-operation in 2002, both companies confirmed the first biologically and medically validated active compounds, which could form the basis for innovative drugs.

AnalytiCon and Kyowa - both specialists in different areas of natural product-based identification of physiologically active compounds - agreed to combine their complementary know-how in this area to deliver and exploit its potential. Under the terms of the co-operation Potsdam-based AnalytiCon develops compound libraries by means of their proprietary NatDiverse(TM) technology, a combination of natural product and combinatorial chemistry. Kyowa Hakko's Biochemical Division is responsible for the production of bulk amounts of selected natural products as starting material. Kyowa Hakko's Pharmaceutical Division is responsible for the screening of the NatDiverse(TM) arrays and will identify, validate and further develop any medically relevant compounds.

With view to the impressive results the companies are extending their co-operation. Studies for future natural products as starting points for drug development are continued by combining both companies' microbial strain collections producing unique metabolites.

Dr. Hirofumi Nakano, Director of Kyowa Hakko's BioFrontier Laboratories, commenting on the plans to extend the co-operation with AnalytiCon, said: "The milestones - thanks to AnalytiCon's technology - have been reached in a very short time, are a strong incentive to continue our co-operation in this promising sector applying our technology and capacity."

Dr. Lutz Müller-Kuhrt, CEO of AnalytiCon, giving a positive outlook on future prospects of the co-operation with Kyowa Hakko said: "Looking at the results achieved so far and on both companies' expertise in the fields of natural product screening and production, we are studying the next phase of the co-operation so that we will be able to deliver new valuable nature derived compound libraries to the pharmaceutical industry."

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AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH:
The internationally operating AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH is a worldwide market-leader in the field of structurally fully elucidated natural product libraries. On the basis of its ready-to-screen technology in the field of natural products (MEGAbolite®) and natural product analogues (NatDiverse(TM)) the company enjoys an exceptional market positioning. This new technology replaces the costly, time-consuming and laborious practices of bioassay-lead extract fractionation and dereplication. This innovative concept has already resulted in the award of several substantial contracts to AnalytiCon from pharmaceutical corporations in Europe (amongst others Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer), the US (amongst others Schering-Plough) and Japan (amongst others Takeda). Currently, AnalytiCon has direct access to roughly 15% of all known natural products worldwide as well as to an even higher number of unpublished structures in their pure and structurally fully elucidated form. The company is leading in the custom-design and development of combinatorial libraries based on rare natural product structures (NatDiverse(TM) tailor-made). In structure elucidation of natural products it can offer the highest throughput available on the market (up to 50 structures per day). AnalytiCon currently employs 60 members of staff at the Biotech Campus Potsdam-Hermannswerder. Thanks to its exceptional position the company is able to offer its clients a complete Supply-Chain-Management from the initial biomaterial to the final lead compound. For further information, please visit AnalytiCon's website at http://www.ac-discovery.com/ 


Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd.:
Kyowa Hakko, headquartered in Tokyo, is a world leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products. For over half a century, Kyowa has been a pioneer in the development and application of fermentation technology and new forms of biotechnology. Its core pharmaceutical research is focused on drug discovery using antibody-based technologies and developing therapeutic agents for cancer and allergies. Kyowa has achieved world-wide success with two agents:
- Mitomycin, indicated for adenocarcinoma of the stomach and pancreas, and marketed in the U.S. by Bristol-Myers Squibb as Mutamycin; and
- Olopatadine, indicated to relieve itching of the eye due to allergic conjunctivitis, and marketed in the U.S. by Alcon as Patanol. For further information, please visit Kyowa Hakko's English-language website at http://www.kyowa.co.jp/eng/ 

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Contact:
AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH
Yasukazu Tambo, Ph.D.
Section Head, Business Development Asia
Hermannswerder Haus 17
14473 Potsdam, Germany
Tel.: +49-331-2300-317
Fax: +49-331-2300-333
eMail: y.tambo@ac-discovery.com 
Website: http://www.ac-discovery.com 


Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd.
Ichiro Matsuura
Manager, Public Relations
1-6-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, 
Tokyo 100-8185, Japan
Tel.: +81-3-3282-1903
Fax: +81-3-3282-0990
eMail: ichiro.matsuura@kyowa.co.jp 
Website: http://www.kyowa.co.jp/eng 


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