ActivX Biosciences, Inc. Announces Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co., LTD. Makes Equity Investment in Company

November 19, 2002

LA JOLLA, California, November 19, 2002 . ActivX Biosciences, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company developing "chemo-proteomics" technologies for drug discovery, announced today that Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan has made an equity investment in the Company. With this investment, Kyorin's total financial commitment to ActivX, including equity, research support and other payments but exclusive of clinical milestone payments and royalties, totals nearly $8 million.

As previously announced, ActivX and Kyorin are engaged in a three-year collaboration to identify and optimize drug candidates for type II diabetes. Under that agreement, ActivX has primary responsibility for assay development and screening, and, using its proprietary protein activity-based analysis and identification platforms XhibitSM and XsiteSM, hit and lead compound profiling, selectivity analysis and off-target identification. Kyorin has primary responsibility for medicinal chemistry and animal pharmacology, as well as clinical development of compounds that result. Kyorin will receive worldwide rights to manufacture and market drug products resulting from the collaboration. ActivX will receive ongoing research support, milestone payments and royalties on products commercialized by Kyorin, and will receive rights to pursue certain compounds discovered to have utility in other disease areas.

"We are pleased to make this investment in ActivX," stated Mr. Ikuo Ogihara, President of Kyorin. "Our collaborative efforts are moving forward extremely well, and we remain very optimistic about ActivX's potential and opportunities given the strength of its unique technologies for drug discovery based on evaluating protein activity. Simply stated, not only do we view ActivX as an attractive partner, we also view the company as an attractive investment."

"This additional financial commitment by Kyorin further strengthens the relationship between our two companies," said John W. Kozarich, Ph.D., President & CEO of ActivX, "and demonstrates Kyorin's continuing favorable assessment of ActivX's high-throughput, activity-based proteomics technology and its benefits for drug discovery. We appreciate Kyorin's vote of confidence and look forward to continuing our collaborative relationship with the hope of discovering safer and more effective drugs for diabetes."

Kyorin
Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (www.kyorin-pharm.co.jp) is a fully integrated, research-oriented pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with a focus in the areas of infectious diseases, immunology and allergic diseases and metabolic diseases. Some of its key products and development compounds include Norfloxacin (first new quinolone antibiotic licensed to Merck & Co., Inc.), Gatifloxacin (novel new quinolone antibiotic licensed in the US to Bristol-Myers Squibb) and KRP-297 (novel PPARα/γ agonist licensed to Merck & Co., Inc.). It has extended its research capabilities through the establishment of Kyorin-Scotland Research Laboratories in conjunction with Scottish Biomedical Foundation Limited and with the formation of an affiliate company, Nisshin Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

ActivX Biosciences
ActivX Biosciences, Inc., (www.activx.com), a privately held biotechnology company in La Jolla, California, is a pioneer in the field of activity-based proteomics, the identification and analysis of active proteins key in both normal and disease situations. By focusing on protein activity, ActivX addresses disease mechanisms directly, in contrast to standard genomics and proteomics techniques. ActivX technology includes novel chemical probes integrated with a high-throughput protein analysis platform to rapidly interrogate the activities of proteins in all ranges of abundance in any biological sample, a process it has termed "chemo-proteomics." ActivX is using its proprietary technology for its partners and on its own behalf to solve critical problems in drug discovery and development, including identifying novel drug targets and biomarkers, guiding the medicinal chemistry optimization of lead compounds through profiling and selectivity analysis against active proteins in target cells and tissues, and assessing efficacy and toxicity for candidate and established drugs.


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Contact: John W. Kozarich, Ph.D.
Chairman, President
(858) 526-2502

 

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