Evolva and AnalytiCon enter Nuclear Receptor Alliance

June 30, 2005 Potsdam, Germany and Allschwil, Switzerland - Evolva Biotech SA (Allschwil, Switzerland) and AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH (Potsdam, Germany) announced today that they have entered into a strategic alliance to jointly apply their respective technologies to the generation and optimization of novel nuclear receptor agonists and related compounds.

Under the terms of the agreement Evolva will be responsible for the creation and optimization of nuclear receptor agonists using its Watchmaker® technology, as well as pre-clinical development. AnalytiCon will provide selected genetic and compound diversity through its MEGAbolite®-process, and will be responsible for compound de-replication, identification and scale-up.

Neil Goldsmith, Managing Director of Evolva, said "Watchmaker® is bringing a new paradigm in drug discovery. By bridging nature.s genetic diversity and chemistry with an evolution process it allows us to create small molecules optimized for specific therapeutic targets. Rather than to rely on nature to provide compounds of interest, we have designed a technology which evolves and delivers small molecules crafted for specific targets. We have already proven our approach can deliver novel, selective nuclear receptor agonists with desirable side-effect profiles. By securing a strategic collaboration with AnalytiCon, one of the leaders in modern natural product approaches, we recognize their expertise which complements judiciously our technology".

Matthias Hess, Global Head of Marketing and Sales of AnalytiCon, commented "MEGAbolite® provides a cutting edge concept for the generation of pure natural products including state of the art fermentation, isolation and structure elucidation. MEGAbolite® is widely accepted in pharma industry for delivering new active principles based on biologically validated structures. We believe that the strategic collaboration with Evolva, which provides a proven and unique approach to generate new active compounds in the field of nuclear receptor agonists, will create a lot of synergies. Through this collaboration both partners will definitely leverage great technological and economical benefits. We are very pleased to enter into this strategic partnership with Evolva and we look forward to experience a bilateral success story."

About Evolva
Evolva evolves small molecule drugs using massively combinatorial gene libraries that drive chemistry rich pathways. Its Watchmaker® technology platform replicates, on an industrial basis, the ability of nature to evolve molecules with exquisite "design", but with the evolution directly aimed at making functional drugs - HIV blockers, anti-obesity compounds etc. Watchmaker® can create, optimize and manufacture molecules that are outside the scope of the traditional synthetic chemistry approaches of the industry. For further information see www.evolvabio.com

About AnalytiCon
AnalytiCon a brand and at the same time successful company, is world.s first address for all needs in connection with natural product drug discovery. From prospecting for biosources, via fermentation, extraction and isolation to high throughput structure elucidation, the company provides a vast portfolio of first class services. Beyond that, AnalytiCon produces pure natural compound collections and libraries of synthetic, natural product based molecules carrying relevant bio-active structure elements. The natural product drug discovery platform is complemented by a portfolio of medicinal chemistry services. For further information see www.ac-discovery.com .

Further information:

Matthias Hess
m.hess@ac-discovery.com
Tel +49 331 2300 300

Neil Goldsmith
neilg@evolvabio.com
Tel +41 61 485 2000