UPPSALA, Sweden, July 8, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Biacore AB today announced that the Reverse Proteomics Research Institute, Co., Ltd (REPRORI), a consortium of 11 major Japanese companies involved with pharmaceutical development, has invested in Biacore's latest technology, Biacore(R)S51. The exquisite sensitivity and higher throughput capability of Biacore(R)S51 will allow REPRORI to gain more detailed and fundamental understanding of how existing small molecule drug compounds interact with human proteins. This new technology platform will complement Biacore(R)3000 technology already being used by REPRORI in its existing proteomics program to consolidate and advance its approach to speeding up the discovery of novel targets for drug discovery.
REPRORI was founded in May 2001 to develop greater understanding of how proteins function, particularly in relation to existing pharmaceutical compounds, in order to identify new targets for medical intervention. REPRORI's 5 year proteomics initiative is considered to be of key importance in the Japanese biotechnology industry and has earned further grant support from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Recent independent market research forecasts the world proteomics market to be worth U.S. $5.6 billion by 2005* and the Japanese Government has already invested significant funds in a Protein Function Analysis project in which Biacore's Japanese subsidiary Biacore KK is involved.
"We have chosen Biacore technology to support this important research program as we believe that it is one of the most advanced technologies available today for understanding molecular interactions at the detailed level we require," commented Dr Renpei Nagashima, President of REPRORI and Advisor at Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
"For companies to really accelerate the drug discovery process they need access to very high quality, accurate binding kinetics data in real time. Our latest system, Biacore(R)S51, has been specifically engineered to allow researchers to get the greatest insight possible into how low molecular weight drug molecules interact with their target proteins in a single experiment. We are pleased that our technology has achieved such recognition in Japan, a country well known for making significant contributions to technology development," said Dr Ulf Jonsson, President and CEO of Biacore International AB.
Biacore(R)S51 is the first commercially available system from its new Series S technology platform. It has been developed in collaboration with industry leaders, including Millennium Pharmaceuticals, SmithKline Beecham and Pharmacia Corporation, and provides high quality, quantitative data regarding binding kinetics, affinity, concentration and specificity of biomolecular interactions.
Cautionary Statement
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which, by their nature, involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
About Biacore
Biacore is a global market leader in Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) technology based systems with its own sales operations in the U.S., across Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. A strong patent portfolio protects Biacore's SPR technology, which gives unique real- time insights into biomolecular interactions. Target groups for the Company's products consist primarily of medical and life science research laboratories and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the world. Biacore is focusing on drug discovery and development as its prime areas for future growth. The Company currently has seven systems on the market, the most important of which are: Biacore(R)S51 for applications downstream of high-throughput screening (HTS) including rapid characterization of HTS hits, and the comprehensive pre-clinical evaluation of lead compounds, and Biacore(R)3000, which offers flexibility in key life science research and drug discovery applications upstream of HTS. The recently introduced Biacore(R)C is specifically designed for compliant concentration analysis of biopharmaceuticals in GLP/GMP applications. A new SPR array chip system, which will provide higher information content is expected to reach the market in 2004.
Based in Uppsala, Sweden, the Company is listed on Stockholmsborsen and Nasdaq in the U.S. In 2001 the Company had sales of SEK 544 million and an operating income of SEK 64 million.
Further information on Biacore can be found on the web: www.biacore.com
Address and phone: Biacore International AB Rapsgatan 7, SE-754 50 Uppsala, SWEDEN Phone: +46 (0)18-67 57 00 Fax: +46 (0)18-15 01 10e-mail: info@biacore.com
The following information was kindly supplied by REPRORI:
About REPRORI
REPRORI was founded May 2001 by joint collaboration of Ajinomoto, Sumitomo Chemical, Dainippon Pharmaceutical, Chugai, Teijin, Nippon Shinyaku, Hitachi Chemical, Hitachi, Fujisawa, and Mochida. It was later joined by Nippon Kayaku. Its purpose is to obtain the knowledge base for generation of new drugs that would satisfy unmet medical needs by studying the interactions between 800 commonly used small molecule drugs and 6,000 proteins prepared from corresponding full length human cDNAs. These cDNA molecules are selected from 30,000 full length human cDNAs that have been accumulated by Helix Research Institute (Kisarazu, Japan), Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Tokyo, and Kazusa DNA Research Institute. REPRORI receives its research funds from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as well as from the participating companies.
Address and phone: Reverse Proteomics Research Institute Co., LTD. 2-6-7, Kazusa-Kamatari, Kisarazu, Chiba, 292-0812, Japan Phone: +81(0)438-52-3975 Fax: +81(0)438-52-3986
Frost & Sullivan Proteomics Profiles Report - 6390-55
For further information, please contact:
Julian Abery, Biacore AB Vice President, Head of Pharmaceutical & Biotech Business Unit +44 (0)1386 853949 +44 (0) 7808 900732 (mobile) julian.abery@biacore.com Ulf Jonsson, President & CEO Biacore International AB, Tel: +41 (0)79 668 8336 Scientific/Trade Press Enquiries: Michelle Lerner, HCC De Facto Group +44 (0) 207 496 3354 m.lerner@hccdefacto.com
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