Paris, France – February 9, 2006 –
ExonHit Therapeutics, a drug and diagnostic discovery company, today announces its 50th SpliceArray commercial project, one year after the launch of such service.
The SpliceArray service combines ExonHit’s know-how and IP in identifying alternative splicing events with the industry leading microarray technologies of Agilent and Affymetrix. SpliceArrays are currently available on the Agilent platform as a service from ExonHit, or can be purchased directly from Agilent. In addition ExonHit is working with Affymetrix and intends to offer proprietary SpliceArray designs on the GeneChip® platform early this year.
The SpliceArray service is all inclusive and offers proprietary labelling methodologies and software tools, both optimized for analysis of splicing on microarrays. ExonHit’s customer base includes university research centres, biotech companies, pharmaceutical companies and diagnostic companies.
“Splicing is an important biological mechanism that has been overlooked historically in the designing of microarrays.” Said Harikrishna Nakshatri, Associate Professor and Marian J. Morrison Investigator in Breast Cancer Research at the Walther Oncology Center in Indiana. “The fact that there are new microarray tools coming on the market that address this issue will lead to new scientific insights and discoveries. We have used the ExonHit SpliceArrays and have identified novel estrogen-induced alternative splicing in breast cancer cells”.
SpliceArrays enable the identification of new therapeutic targets or diagnostic markers based on alternative RNA splicing, a largely unexploited source of genomic diversity. In 2005 ExonHit significantly increased its SpliceArray product range and now provides six different biochips encompassing gene families of therapeutic interest in human medicine (ion channel, GPCR, nuclear receptors, cytokines, protein kinases and apoptosis). Laboratories who prefer to run arrays in their own laboratory can order SpliceArray biochips directly from Agilent following signing of a purchase agreement with ExonHit.
“The technical benefits of our SpliceArrays together with our partnerships with Agilent and Affymetrix, world leaders in biochips, should strengthen our position in this high growth market.” said Bruno Tocqué, President and CEO. He added “Our customers are primarily Noth American research laboratories, prestigious universities or government institutions such as Harvard Medical School and National Cancer Institute or pharmaceutical research centres. Looking ahead we expect our sales of SpliceArrays to continue to grow at a rapid pace as we introduce this new generation of biochips to research laboratories in Japan and in Europe,” he added.
For further information about SpliceArray, please visit www.splicearray.com, or email us at splicearray@exonhit.com.
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About ExonHit Therapeutics
www.exonhit.com
ExonHit Therapeutic is the world's leader in the analysis of alternative RNA splicing, a process which when deregulated plays a key role in the onset of various diseases.
ExonHit has a multi component commercial strategy to capture the maximum value from its leadership in alternative splicing. The Company is already generating revenues from a new generation of microarrays, “SpliceArrays” that enable life science researchers to detect crucial disease-associated information. These products are marketed worldwide in conjunction with Agilent. In the field of diagnostics, ExonHit has a major collaboration with bioMérieux to develop completely novel predictive blood-based cancer diagnostics, which could play a key role in improving the treatment of breast and other major cancers.
In parallel, ExonHit is developing its own therapeutic pipeline in the field of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The Company has advanced drug candidates into clinical trials and is evaluating several promising pre-clinical compounds. ExonHit also has a strategic partnership with Allergan, to discover and develop new therapeutics in the areas of pain, neurological diseases and ophthalmology. This collaboration provides on-going research funding to ExonHit.
Founded in 1997, ExonHit is headquartered in Paris , France and has a US facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland . The Company is listed on Alternext of Euronext Paris (ticker: ALEHT).
The elements included in this communication may contain looking forward statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results of the Company may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements because of different risk factors described in the Company Document de Base.
