| Paris, France June 9 2005 - Aureus Pharma, a provider of knowledge management solutions to aid discovery in the life sciences industry, today announces that sanofi-aventis has become its first customer for the company’s recently released AurSCOPE® Ion Channel database. This agreement extends the collaboration between Aureus Pharma and sanofi-aventis which already covered other Aureus databases. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
This new database gives researchers access to information on all major ion channels already described in scientific literature, allowing the identification, validation and prioritization of new targets and ligands for drug discovery. Sanofi-aventis plans to use the AurSCOPE-Ion Channel database to help researchers speed up its discovery process in a number of fields.
“The use of the database will allow our medicinal chemists to better design chemical libraries, will increase screening output and ultimately will reduce the time required for lead optimization,” said Daniel Schirlin, Director of Science and Technology at sanofi-aventis. “Our experience with Aureus Pharma’s other databases has shown that they add significant value to our in-house activities and we expect that this new module of AurSCOPE will be equally useful to the group.”
The agreement means that Aureus Pharma is successfully expanding its range of knowledge management tools, and increasing market penetration. The company already has collaboration agreements with other life science companies including Roche.
“Sanofi-aventis has been a user of two of Aureus Pharma’s knowledgebases for some time, AurSCOPE-GPCR and AurSCOPE-ADME/Drug-Drug Interaction databases,” said Dr. André Michel, CEO of Aureus Pharma, “Its decision to extend the partnership by acquiring the ion channel database as well is confirmation of the fact that our products are meeting the needs of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.”
The market importance of ion channels as a class of targets for drug discovery is growing. They play a crucial role in all functions in the human body and are targets in a wide variety of diseases including cystic fibrosis, epilepsy and arrhythmia. They remain one of the less exploited therapeutic target areas studied today, one of the reasons why Aureus Pharma has developed its AurSCOPE to accelerate research in this field.
About sanofi-aventis
Sanofi-aventis is the world’s 3rd largest pharmaceutical company, ranking number 1 in Europe. Backed by a world-class R&D organization, sanofi-aventis is developing leading positions in seven major therapeutic areas: cardiovascular disease, thrombosis, oncology, metabolic diesases, central nervous system, internal medicine, vaccines. Sanofi-aventis is listed in Paris (EURONEXT : SAN) and in New York (NYSE : SNY).
About AureusPharma
Aureus Pharma headquartered in Paris, France is a privately held knowledge management based solutions provider for the life sciences industry. Aureus Pharma accelerates new drug discovery with innovative products combining computerized knowledge management systems with quantitative biological activity. For further information on how Aureus Pharma helps researchers turn data into discovery visit www.aureus-pharma.com
Forward-looking Statements sanofi-aventis/Aventis
This press release may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words “expect,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates” and similar expressions. Although management of sanofi-aventis and aventis believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of sanofi-aventis, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by sanofi-aventis and Aventis, including those listed under “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” in their respective annual reports on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2003. Other than as required by applicable law, neither sanofi-aventis nor Aventis undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.
Contact:
Mary E. Donlan, Ph.D
Director of Marketing & Sales
+33 1 40 18 57 59
mary.donlan@Aureus-pharma.com
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