ASINEX, a leading European provider of Lead Generation and Optimization services, today announced a multi-FTE deal with Biovitrum, one of Europe's leading biotech companies, to perform chemical lead optimization of compounds discovered in Biovitrum's proprietary compound collection.

From initial starting points a number of interesting lead series have been developed in Biovitrum. Rapid evaluation of these possibilities, with several rounds of optimization has already been successfully completed, and options for further optimization are being explored.

Dr. Charles Hedgecock, Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Biovitrum said, "The flexibility Asinex provides in enabling us to access skilled synthetic chemists in support of some of our late stage projects, is important in maintaining momentum through to the clinic."

Prof. Mikhail Kirpichenok, Director of Research at ASINEX commented "We are delighted to be working with Biovitrum who are one of the leading biotech companies in Europe. We are very pleased that Biovitrum recognizes our expertise in providing lead optimization of the highest quality. We look forward to the successful completion of our ongoing projects and hope to continue to develop our collaboration in the future."

ASINEX (www.asinex.com) is a full-service chemistry provider of 'Intelligent Chemistry` for the lead generation and optimization stage of drug discovery. Well known as a supplier of diverse, small molecule libraries for screening and building blocks for combinatorial chemistry, ASINEX has developed a reputation for cost-effective and efficient Lead Optimization, Custom Synthesis and Focused Library Generation. Kinase, GPCR and Ion-Channel targeted libraries have recently been launched. Based in Moscow, with a total of 104 chemists (41 PhDs), 8 computational (6 PhDs) chemists and 17 biologists (11 PhDs), ASINEX has powerful drug discovery resources.

BIOVITRUM (www.biovitrum.com) is a biotech company active in the discovery and development of drugs to treat metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, and in the development of protein therapeutics, with metabolic diseases and oncology as targeted therapy areas. The company has a strong intellectual property and technology platform, with a number of compounds in preclinical and clinical development. Biovitrum is one of the largest biotech companies in Europe with more than 550 employees. Annual revenues, including royalties and contract service fees, finance the major part of the annual research budget.

For more info please contact:

ASINEX Ltd
Alistair Melvin
Business Development
Tel: (00)7 495 190 7960
Email: amelvin@asinex.com

BIOVITRUM AB
Mikael Widell
Senior Vice President Communications
Biovitrum AB
SE-112 76 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46 8 697 20 85
Fax: +46 8 656 46 30
Mobile: +46 703 11 99 60
e-mail: mikael.widell@biovitrum.com