HANOVER, Md., Sept. 7, 2000 (PRIMEZONE)-- Oceanix Biosciences Corporation announced today that it has changed its name to NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation ("NovaScreen" or the "Company") to better portray its business focus and activities. NovaScreen is a leading biotechnology company that is increasingly focused on the construction of predictive pharmacoinformatics databases designed to rationalize and speed the pharmaceutical industry's drug discovery and development activities.
The Company announced early this year a collaborative agreement with Glaxo Wellcome Inc. ("Glaxo" NYSE:GLX). NovaScreen's agreement with Glaxo allows Glaxo non-exclusive access to the Company's Reactive Selectivity Mapping Database(tm) ("RSMDB(tm)") and provides for Glaxo and NovaScreen to collaborate on the development of additional database mining tools.
The RSMDB(tm) is a powerful pharmacoinformatics database that allows leading pharmaceutical companies access to an efficient, cost-effective, predictive tool for drug discovery and development. NovaScreen's pharmacoinformatics business is an extension of the Company's drug discovery and development services business, which has operated under the trade name of NovaScreen for nearly 15 years. This business is a worldwide leader in providing breadth of receptor and enzyme screening assays, and counts two thirds of the worlds leading drug companies as clients
"NovaScreen's agreement with Glaxo is just the beginning of the actualization of the potential of our RSMDB(tm) product. As our focus on database products increased, our clients questioned the company name Oceanix when the NovaScreen name has been both respected and well known in the pharmaceutical industry," commented Dr. David M. Manyak, CEO and President of NovaScreen. Dr. Manyak continued, "We have built NovaScreen into a leading drug discovery and development service provider whose clients include leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide. Since our clients know us by that name and because NovaScreen's molecular screening services franchise provides the foundation for our pharmacoinformatics database business, it only made sense to adopt the NovaScreen name."
About the Company:
NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation (www.novascreen.com), a leading biotechnology firm, provides drug discovery, and development services worldwide based on molecular screening technologies. Established in 1986, NovaScreen has been recognized for innovation in the field of receptor pharmacology. NovaScreen has developed the Receptor Selectivity Mapping Database(tm) ("RSMDB(tm)"), a broad content database and bioinformatics tool. When employed with NovaScreen's data mining tools, a client can determine patterns of chemical/receptor interactions that are correlated with specific biological and drug activities, and clinical outcomes. RSMDB(tm) is able to provide powerful statistical predictability to the drug discovery process, which enhances the efficiency of drug development efforts. In addition to its core technology in receptor and enzyme assays, NovaScreen provides cellular and molecular biology services to its clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other related industries worldwide.
Currently, NovaScreen counts two thirds of the world's leading drug companies as its clients, with over 150 clients worldwide.
In 1993, NovaScreen (originally a division of Nova Pharmaceutical Corporation) became a division of Oceanix Biosciences Corporation. Oceanix was founded in 1987. In addition to its NovaScreen(tm) business, the Company maintains a library of unique marine compounds and other natural products that it employs to develop pharmaceutical and industrial products. In 1998, the Company began the development of its pharmacoinformatics business of which RSMDB(tm) is the initial product.