CAMBRIDGE DISCOVERY CHEMISTRY™ ANNOUNCES MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY DEAL WITH ASTRAZENECA

Cambridge Discovery Chemistry, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oxford Molecular Group plc (LSE: OMG) today announced the successful completion of the first phase of an agreement in medicinal chemistry with AstraZeneca Plc.

In Phases 2 and 3 of the project, Cambridge Discovery Chemistry will design and optimise compound libraries of increasing sizes against targets selected by AstraZeneca. In return, Cambridge Discovery Chemistry will receive ongoing fees and milestone payments at completion of each phase.

"We were delighted that AstraZeneca chose our Company to provide outsourced medicinal chemistry for their lead optimisation program," commented Allan Marchington, CEO of Cambridge Discovery Chemistry. "We now have agreements with six of the world's top ten pharmaceutical companies, which reflects on the quality of our chemistry and genuine understanding of the needs of the pharmaceutical research team."

Mike Cox, Head of High Throughput Screening and Compound Management, AstraZeneca, Alderley Park, Macclesfield added, "We are extremely pleased with the progress Cambridge Discovery Chemistry has made, and look forward to continued success as the project moves forward."

 

For further information, please contact:
Cambridge Discovery Chemistry
Tel: +44 1223 722400

Zeneca Agrochemicals: Ian Weatherhead, External Relations Manager
Tel: +44 1428 657096

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

Notes to editors

Cambridge Discovery Chemistry (formerly known as Cambridge Combinatorial Limited)

Cambridge Discovery Chemistry 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. Cambridge Discovery Chemistry has developed leading technologies for discovery research including innovative molecular design, novel chemistries, new synthetic chemistry platforms and a comprehensive integrated informatics system. The company acts as an extension to the resources of its collaborators with solutions for discovery research including medicinal and combinatorial chemistry for lead generation, validation, optimisation and technology transfer as required.

Cambridge Discovery Chemistry has secured many discovery collaborations with a range of pharmaceutical, agrochemical and biotechnology companies spanning the US, Japan and Europe including: Merck & Co. Inc., Pfizer, Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals Inc., Rohm & Haas, Alizyme, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Yamanouchi and Fujisawa.

Oxford Molecular Group plc

Oxford Molecular is a leading provider of discovery and software solutions to the life sciences market. The Company seeks to deliver excellence in all its products and services and to help its customers benefit from the synergy that is created from the integration of state-of-the-art chemistry, biology and information technology infrastructure. The Discovery Solutions Division offers discovery research through collaboration, by providing world-class innovative technologies in chemistry and biology which intimately match customer needs and add value to their research programmes. The Software Solutions Division supplies enterprise-wide software and information technology solutions for research across the entire drug discovery process. Innovative and superior products target customer needs for excellence in each area of discovery research; and together they form integrated solutions that add value to the flow of information through the customer’s research process. The Company has its headquarters in Oxford, England and has operations throughout the USA as well as sales offices and agents around the world.

AstraZeneca Plc

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of ethical (prescription) pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world with healthcare sales of $15 billion and leading positions in sales of gastrointestinal, oncology, anasthesia including pain management,cardiovascular, central nervous system (CNS) and respiratory products.