STOCKHOLM, Sweden and SAN DIEGO, Dec. 14, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Biovitrum AB and Discovery Partners International, Inc. (Nasdaq:DPII) today announced that they have entered into a drug discovery and development alliance. Biovitrum and Discovery Partners will work together to identify small molecule lead compounds suitable for advancing targets within the metabolic disease area.
Under the terms of this agreement, Biovitrum will get access to DPI's comprehensive compound collection and its proprietary process and data management tools. Financial terms of the collaboration are not disclosed.
"We are impressed by DPI's integrated drug discovery approach and expect that this will add significant value to our ongoing lead discovery programs," said Mats Pettersson, Chief Executive Officer of Biovitrum.
"We are delighted to begin this collaboration with Biovitrum, and we are pleased to be working together on this promising new program," said Taylor Crouch, President & COO of Discovery Partners.
Discovery Partners International Riccardo Pigliucci, CEO 858-228-4113 Craig Kussman, CFO 858-228-4113 ir@discoverypartners.com Biovitrum AB Johan Kordel, Sr. Vice President Business Development +46 (0)70-636 81 64 johan.kordel@biovitrum.com
About Biovitrum
Biovitrum is a privately held Swedish biotechnology company with its operations focused on the discovery and development of innovative drugs, primarily for the treatment of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. The company has a number of potential new drugs in development internally and in strategic alliances with partners. Biovitrum also offers contract services and business alliances in process development and manufacturing of protein therapeutics, and markets a portfolio of products in the Nordic territory. For more information, please visit Biovitrum's website at http://www.biovitrum.com.
About Discovery Partners
Discovery Partners International, Inc. offers integrated services, products, and systems that span the drug discovery continuum, including target characterization, targeted and screening-library design and synthesis, high throughput and high content screening, lead generation and optimization, gene expression analysis, and protein crystallization. DPI has actively contributed to dozens of drug discovery collaborations. Discovery Partners International is headquartered in San Diego, California and has operations in the United States, Europe and India.
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty. These include statements related to the alliance's ability to advance and add value to Biovitrum's lead discovery programs. Discovery Partners' and Biovitrum's actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in their operations, collaborative relationships (including the alliance), development efforts and business environment, including risks and uncertainties more fully described in Discovery Partners' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Discovery Partners' other SEC reports.
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