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AsisChem and Apredica Announce Strategic Alliance to Combine Complementary Drug Discovery Support Services

AsisChem and Apredica Announce Strategic Alliance to Combine Complementary Drug Discovery Support Services
The alliance provides Apredica and AsisChem's clients immediate and convenient access to both companies' core services: Apredica's ADME-Tox services and AsisChem's powerful, cost-effective small-molecule synthesis and analog library development.

WATERTOWN, Mass., March 30, 2009 - AsisChem, Inc., a custom chemical synthesis and medicinal chemistry services provider, and Apredica, an ADME-Tox contract research laboratory, today announced a strategic alliance to provide drug-discovery support services to biotech, pharmaceutical, and non-profit research organizations around the world. The alliance provides Apredica and AsisChem's clients immediate and convenient access to both companies' core services: Apredica's ADME-Tox services and AsisChem's powerful, cost-effective small-molecule synthesis and analog library development.

"Our firms excel in our respective areas of expertise" said Grigoriy Rublev, AsisChem's Chief Executive Officer. "The joint effort establishes an expanded menu of coordinated, complementary, high-value services that drug discovery teams can engage to accelerate drug development, improve cost efficiency, and increase program success rates," he added.

"The combination of Apredica's ADME-Tox services and AsisChem's synthesis and medicinal chemistry capabilities means that now our customers can increase their cycle speeds," said Katya Tsaioun, Ph.D., President of Apredica. "Direct communication of our ADME-Tox data back to AsisChem's chemists means that discovery teams can develop their best lead compounds faster and submit their IND applications sooner."

Chemical Synthesis in Drug Discovery
Organizations that advance their discovery programs beyond the identification of viable screening hits require synthesis and testing of up to hundreds of analogs during the hit-to-lead and lead-optimization stages to identify a viable clinical development candidate. Success often depends on testing a sufficiently large array of carefully selected analogs in an iterative process that is usually constrained by cycle times and budgets. AsisChem relies on its experienced pool of Ph.D.-level chemists and a low-cost infrastructure to deliver high-quality synthetic analogs with lower budgets and shorter timelines than its leading competitors can achieve. "We were able to synthesize more compounds than we expected based on offers from other custom synthesis companies" said Dr. Carlos E. Pedraza, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cleveland Clinic. "This gave us the opportunity to successfully explore more research avenues than we originally thought possible."

ADME-Tox Profiling in Drug Discovery
Drug discovery and development programs see many drug candidates fail in clinical-trial stages. Many of these failures could have been avoided through the application of early ADME testing and toxicity profiling, which can quickly identify drug candidates with characteristics that would preclude regulatory approval. Early identification of these sure-to-fail candidates saves not only millions of dollars, but also months or years of research time that could have gone towards producing a successful drug candidate. Apredica works closely with clients to provide the data needed to reduce the risk of expensive, later stage failure, to increase the likelihood of drug development program success, and to accelerate the program towards IND. "More than any other CRO I have worked with, Apredica acts as a true collaborative partner and not simply a for-hire service provider. I have on many, many occasions benefited from Apredica's guidance, help and advice, something I have generally not seen in other CROs" said Dr. Donald Kirsch, Vice President of Drug Discovery at Cambria Pharmaceuticals.

About Apredica
Apredica is a specialist ADME-Tox CRO providing preclinical contract testing services for the evaluation and optimization of the ADME-Tox properties of drug candidates early in the drug-discovery process. Apredica maximizes the speed and efficiency of drug discovery, and helps de-risk drug-discovery programs by providing timely information on the absorption, metabolism, safety, and toxicity properties of small molecules to enable drug-discovery programs to focus their resources on the molecules most likely to succeed. The company's headquarters are in Watertown, Massachusetts. Its website is www.Apredica.com.

About AsisChem, Inc.
AsisChem is a global contract research organization that provides custom synthesis and medicinal chemistry services at competitive FTE rates. The company specializes in research-intensive collaborations that are led by Ph.D.-level scientific project managers in the U.S. and carried out by a highly experienced group of 30 Ph.D.-level chemists in St. Petersburg, Russia. The company offers the highest level of chemistry expertise, superior customer focus, exhaustive project management, complete quality control, and relentless risk management. To learn more visit www.AsisChem.com.

To learn more about the companies involved in this exciting new drug-discovery alliance:
AsisChem, Inc.
Watertown, MA
Website: www.asischem.com
Downloadable brochure: AsisChem Chemistry Services

Contact: Grigoriy Rublev, CEO
Email: press@asischem.com
Apredica
Watertown, MA
Website: www.apredica.com

Contact: Katya Tsaioun, Ph.D., President
Email: enquiries@apredica.com
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