Inpharmatica announces agreement with Biotica Technology to provide comprehensive ADME support to their natural products programmes

Inpharmatica announces agreement with Biotica Technology to provide comprehensive ADME support to their natural products programmes

London, UK, April 19, 2004 -- Inpharmatica Ltd, the selective drug discovery company, announced today that it has entered into a two year ADME service agreement with Biotica Technology Ltd, a drug discovery company specialising in developing bioengineered polyketides from actinomycete bacteria.

Under the agreement, Inpharmatica will provide Biotica with a full suite of ADME services spanning in vitro ADME screening, analysis and interpretation of ADME data to ADME lead optimisation consultancy. This agreement demonstrates the wide applicability of Inpharmatica's services to aid the progression of drug discovery programmes, including those employing natural products. Working with Inpharmatica, Biotica aims to develop novel rapamycin analogues and other anti-proliferatives with optimal pharmacokinetic properties. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Polyketides represent a structurally diverse set of natural products that provide an unusually rich source of commercially significant, biologically active compounds. The world-wide sales of polyketide-derived pharmaceuticals exceeds $17bn and covers a range of therapeutic applications including anti-bacterials, anti-fungals, immunosuppressants, anti-hyperlipidaemics, anti-cancer and anti-parasitics. Biotica's technology is capable of generating novel polyketide structures which are inaccessible by other methods.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr Mike Tarbit, Senior VP of Preclinical R & D, at Inpharmatica, said:

"We are delighted to be entering into a relationship with Biotica, an exciting company spun out of Cambridge University. This agreement illustrates the increasing recognition of Inpharmatica's ADME expertise in all areas of drug discovery, including non-small molecule natural products. Our ADME group is structured to provide fully flexible solutions to meet the increasing need for effective compound design and lead optimisation in small biotech companies through to large pharma."

Commenting on the announcement, Dr Michael Hayes, Executive Chairman at Biotica, said:

"Inpharmatica provides Biotica with a flexible approach to providing comprehensive ADME support which will aid progression of our novel natural products through lead optimisation. Working with Inpharmatica, we are able to access valuable expertise and current technology cost effectively. This will assist Biotica to exploit the unique and exciting discovery opportunities offered by our proprietary technology rapidly and efficiently."

Inpharmatica Ltd is a selective drug discovery company that is applying its expertise in structural and computational biology, and medicinal chemistry to the identification of quality drug targets, chemical leads and drug candidates, thereby reducing attrition in the drug discovery process. The Company's lead discovery program is focused upon the development of 16 novel Nuclear Receptors ("NR's"), a family of proteins widely considered to be both druggable and of high therapeutic interest. Drugs targeted against NR's generate more than $10bn in sales annually. Inpharmatica's novel NR's represent a more than a 30% increase on those identified in the public domain.

The Company's technology platform, PharmaCarta[TM], is applied internally and available to collaborative partners. It's a flexible and integrated chemogenomics suite that links genomic and proteomic space with chemistry, and provides a unique approach to hit identification, lead generation and drug optimisation for druggable targets. This platform utilises the massive computing power of the Company's 2,500- processor compute farm, one of the largest in the world. Biopendium[TM] and ADME services, both integral parts of PharmaCarta[TM] are also available stand-alone. The Company has sales and collaboration partnerships with leading biotech and pharma companies including Serono, Pfizer, Daiichi, Riken, Galapagos, Aventis, GSK, UCB Pharma and Taisho.

Founded in 1998, Inpharmatica's technology is based on research from Professor Janet Thornton's group at University College London. The Company employs some 100 staff at its UK locations London and on the Cambridge Science Park. To date the Company has raised some EUR 34.6m from leading venture capitalists including Unibio, 3i, GIMV, Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, Advent Venture Partners, Abingworth Mgt, Gilde Investment, Vertex Mgt and Genentech Inc.

Biotica Technology Limited is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the discovery of novel pharmaceuticals through the targeted alteration of biosynthetic pathways producing natural products. Its platform technologies enable both the specific and combinatorial biosynthesis of bioactive polyketides. Polyketides are a particularly diverse class of natural products that have proven to be a rich source of commercially significant pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals. The company has already applied this technology to the pathways for a number of valuable and clinically useful natural products.

Biotica recently relocated to new premises at Chesterford Research Park, allowing Biotica to consolidate and expand its drug discovery programmes. To learn more about Biotica visit www.biotica.co.uk