OBESITY PRODUCT CANDIDATE IDENTIFIED FROM OXFORD MOLECULAR'S COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO DRUG DISCOVERY

Cambridge, UK … Oxford Molecular Group plc (LSE: OMG) today announced that Alizyme plc has entered ATL 962 into pre-clinical development as a potential treatment for obesity and related disorders including Type II diabetes. This compound has resulted from a two and a half-year collaboration between Alizyme and Oxford Molecular Group plc's Collaborative Discovery Group including Cambridge Combinatorial.

The collaboration involves an integrated programme of molecular modelling, synthetic chemistry, computational and medicinal chemistry and screening. This programme validates Oxford Molecular Collaborative Discovery's strategy of providing a broad range of drug discovery technologies and resources. This is supported by leading biology, chemistry and information technology experience and expertise within the Oxford Molecular Group. Provision exists for the collaboration to trigger royalties on the product reaching the market.

Dr. David Ricketts, Executive Vice President, Oxford Molecular Collaborative Discovery commented: "The identification of a development candidate from one of Alizyme's patents arising from this programme is a very satisfying deliverable for us and we look forward to building further on this achievement in our future relationship. Our capability of offering integrated drug discovery solutions is based on a number of companies within the Oxford Molecular Group, emphasised in this collaboration by the expert chemistry resource provided by Professor Steven Ley and Cambridge Combinatorial ."

Dr. Richard Palmer, Chief Executive Officer of Alizyme, commented, "I am extremely pleased that our collaboration has resulted in this significant achievement, which is of great importance for Alizyme. The approach to the programme and the expertise brought by Oxford Molecular Group plc and by Cambridge Combinatorial has highlighted the quality of their science and their expertise in drug discovery."

For further information, please contact:
Oxford Molecular Collaborative Discovery,
David T Phillips, Vice-President, Marketing
TEL: +44 1223 716 700

HCC·De Facto Group plc
Chris Gardner, HCC·De Facto Group plc
TEL: +44 171 496 3300

Notes to editors

Cambridge Combinatorial Limited
Cambridge Combinatorial Limited provides world-class, innovative chemistry services to accelerate discovery and process research, servicing the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and biotechnology industries. The Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oxford Molecular Group plc.

Oxford Molecular Group plc
Oxford Molecular is a worldwide provider of information technology and drug discovery research services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries. Headquartered in Oxford, England, the company also has operations in eight US cities, as well as sales offices and agents around the world. It has two trading divisions: Software Solutions and Discovery Solutions. Within Software Solutions the company supplies desktop and enterprise-wide software solutions that support research across the entire discovery process, including target identification, lead identification and optimization, molecular modeling and physico-chemical property prediction. Within Discovery Solutions, Collaborative Discovery offers an integrated, highly cost-effective solution for accelerating drug discovery utilizing teams of experienced pharmaceutical researchers who use state-of-the-art technologies to develop novel targets and advanced screening capabilities, design novel active compounds and synthesize high quality compounds using combinatorial chemistry.

Alizyme
Alizyme is a biopharmaceutical development company, targeting the treatment and management of obesity and gastrointestinal disorders. Alizyme is building its product portfolio by a combination of licensing-in promising technologies and products and collaborative research and development. The company is taking products through to proof of efficacy in humans in Phase II clinical trials, with the intention to license-out products for late-stage clinical trials and eventual marketing.