ActivX Biosciences, Inc.

Activx Biosciences and Sosei to Collaborate on Drug Re-profiling Program

January 6, 2003

LA JOLLA, California, January 6, 2003 ... ActivX Biosciences, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company developing and applying proprietary activity-based chemo-proteomic technology to drug discovery, announced today it has entered into a collaboration with Tokyo-based Sosei Co., Ltd. to identify potential new target indications for candidate drug molecules from Sosei's Drug Re-profiling Platform (DRP) collection.

Sosei's collection of drug candidates and drug molecules consists of a significant number of proprietary small molecule compounds which have already demonstrated favorable safety profiles in human clinical studies but whose development has stalled for reasons other than toxicity, or compounds which are currently marketed as drugs in Japan but not in major western markets. Sosei has in-licensed its DRP collection from a consortium of Japanese pharmaceutical companies and, by applying novel drug discovery techniques such as ActivX's chemo-proteomics technology to its compounds, intends to identify new molecular targets and therapeutic indications for which they can be developed as pharmaceuticals. Once a relevant target or indication is identified, the compound can be moved forward rapidly in clinical development since its safety has already been established.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, which has a one-year term and can be extended by mutual consent, ActivX will share in all new intellectual property developed through the collaboration. ActivX and Sosei expect to jointly commercialize product opportunities that result. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"We expect this collaboration with ActivX to advance our efforts to identify novel indications for the molecules in our Drug Re-profiling Platform collection," stated Shinichi Tamura, president and chief executive officer of Sosei. "We believe that ActivX's unique technologies for evaluating a test compound's ability to modulate protein activity across whole protein families will prove useful in identifying targets that will yield valuable insights into potential new indications."

Added John W. Kozarich, Ph.D., President & CEO of ActivX, "We are excited to enter this collaboration with Sosei, and welcome the opportunity to apply ActivX's proprietary XhibitSM and XsiteSM technologies for high-throughput, activity-based proteomic analysis to Sosei's rich collection of compounds. Our ability to rapidly profile compounds against entire protein families in biological samples relevant for many different disease indications, and to identify those proteins with which a compound interacts, is very powerful and ideally suited for this effort. We anticipate that our collaboration will yield new applications for promising compounds for which the safety has been demonstrated, but the therapeutic potential and mechanism of action has yet to be confirmed."

Sosei Co, Ltd.
Sosei is a leading private Japanese biopharmaceutical company focused on drug development, carrying out proprietary R&D in collaboration with leading biotech companies and research institutes. Sosei is actively in-licensing late-stage products from Western and Japanese pharmaceutical companies to develop its core product portfolio, capitalizing on its extensive global network established over 10 years in its successful technology transfer business.

ActivX Biosciences
ActivX Biosciences, Inc., (www.activx.com), a privately held biotechnology company in La Jolla, California, is a pioneer in applying activity-based proteomics, the identification and analysis of active proteins key in both normal and disease situations, to drug discovery. 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 high-throughput protein analysis platforms 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 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 for its partners and on its own behalf.

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

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