DiscoveRx Corporation and Applied Biosystems Group, an Applera Corporation
business, announced the signing of a co-exclusive distribution agreement for
DiscoveRx reagents. Known as HitHunter(TM), these chemiluminscent reagents will
be offered through the Applied Biosystems Group and marketed together with
other, related instrument and service products as complete drug discovery
solutions.
"This partnership is an unusual opportunity to provide proprietary
technologies from both companies which are exciting by themselves, but when
combined they provide a truly unique, un-compromising solution to many of the
key problems for high throughput screening today," said Jim Richey,
executive vice president for sales and marketing at DiscoveRx.
Mark Roskey, marketing director at Applied Biosystems said, "With our
NorthStar(TM) HTS Workstation, proprietary chemiluminescent substrates, and
DiscoveRx HitHunter(TM) reagents, we can offer assay development groups and
high throughput screening labs around the world, a unique combination of speed,
ease of use, and miniaturization that together give the customer unmatched
performance and cost-effectiveness."
Using enzyme fragment complementation as a labeling and detection method,
HitHunter assays and tools have been used across a wide variety of targets to
successfully build high precision, high throughput assays. Pyare Khanna, CEO of
DiscoveRx commented, "We are very pleased to welcome Applied Biosystems as
a distribution and technology partner for our HitHunter platform. In addition
to giving DiscoveRx unprecedented market access and customer support resources,
this agreement serves as additional confirmation of the effectiveness of this
technology approach."
Although full terms were not disclosed, the agreement also includes
provisions for strategic collaborations in future product research and
development.
About DiscoveRx
DiscoveRx' proprietary technology platform is comprised of fluorescence and
chemiluminescence-based technologies designed to provide flexible, high
throughput, cost-effective solutions to the current and evolving HTS
requirements of drug discovery laboratories. DiscoveRx uses its' proprietary
position in homogeneous, high sensitivity, biological assays to be the first to
market with effective solutions to the problems facing HTS users.
DiscoveRx is developing a powerful collection of enabling assay
technologies to aid in the areas of HTS and genomics for drug discovery. The
company's core technology uses in vitro complementation of recombinant enzyme
fragments to measure the interaction of biological molecules in solution,
without the need for separation steps. This extremely sensitive, proven
technology was originally developed for clinical assays where well over one
million tests per day are currently being run with this technology.
Over thirty patents protect this enzyme fragment technology and DiscoveRx
has exclusive, worldwide commercial rights to non-diagnostic applications under
these patents in the drug discovery field. DiscoveRx applies these homogeneous
assays to assist customers in the identification and validation of drug
targets, screening for drug leads, and collection of pharmacokinetic data on
drugs in development. This technology is compatible with a wide variety of
assay formats and detection systems including micro miniaturization and low
noise luminescence detection. Additional enabling assay technologies are in
development.
DiscoveRx provides assay kits, high volume screening reagents, assay
development services, and custom reagents to pharmaceutical and biotech
companies.
DiscoveRx, founded in 1999 is privately held, with investments from Morgan
Stanley Venture Partners, Alta Partners, Skyline Partners and Mediphase
Ventures.
The company's headquarters are located at 42501 Albrae Street, Suite 100
Fremont, CA 94538 and the telephone number is (510) 979-1415. The web site
address is: www.discoverx.com.
About Applera Corporation
Applera Corporation comprises two operating groups. The Applied Biosystems
Group develops and markets instrument-based systems, reagents, software and
contract services to the life science industry and research community. Customers
use these tools to analyze nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and proteins to make
scientific discoveries, leading to the development of new pharmaceuticals, and
to conduct standardized testing. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster
City, CA, and reported sales of $1.6 billion during fiscal 2001. The Celera
Genomics Group, an integrated source of genomic and related medical information
headquartered in Rockville, MD, is evolving to become a next generation
therapeutic discovery company. Celera intends to leverage its industrialized
approach to biology to develop platforms for enabling these new discoveries
both for its own internal product development and for its customers, including
collaboration partners and subscribers. Celera Diagnostics has been established
as a joint venture between Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics. This new
venture is focused on discovery, development and commercialization of novel
diagnostic tests.
Information about Applera Corporation, including reports and other information
filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is available
on the World Wide Web at www.applera.com, or by telephoning 800/762-6923.
AB (Design), Applera, Celera, Celera Genomics, Celera Diagnostics and
NorthStar are trademarks and Applied Biosystems is a registered trademark of
Applera Corporation or its subsidiaries in the US and certain other countries.
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