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Norak Biosciences and Cellomics Sign Transfluor® Sales and Marketing Agreement
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC and PITTSBURGH, PA – August 11, 2003 - Norak Biosciences, Inc., a global leader in the discovery and development of drugs that regulate G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and Cellomics, Inc., the leading provider of integrated platforms for drug discovery researchers focused on understanding the functions and effectors of living cells, jointly announced today that they signed a North America/ Europe sales and marketing agreement. Cellomics will immediately begin leveraging their leadership position in the High Content Screening (HCS) market, focusing their direct sales channel on a combined offering that includes Cellomics’ GPCR Signaling BioApplication and Norak’s Transfluor® technology. The agreement additionally provides for 1) marketing of Norak’s Transfluor® technology with Cellomics' ArrayScan® HCS Reader and/or KineticScan® HCS Reader, an expansive portfolio of BioApplication software modules and HitKit™ HCS Reagent Kits, and informatics products; and 2) co-development of future GPCR-based reagent products. Financial terms of this agreement were not disclosed.
Norak’s Transfluor® technology is a patented, universal GPCR drug discovery
technology designed to be the most direct and accurate method for screening
potential drug candidates against GPCR targets, whether known or orphan.
Transfluor® was licensed in 1999 by Norak from technology developed at Duke
University Medical Center and represents the combined research into GPCR
signaling pathways over several decades by Norak’s scientific founders, Drs.
Marc Caron, Robert Lefkowitz, and Larry Barak. “Cellomics has the most broadly
penetrated HCS platform capable of imaging the Transfluor assay”, stated Terry
E. Willard, Executive Vice President at Norak. “The primary objective is to
target this installed base with Transfluor to bring this powerful GPCR drug
discovery tool to instrument enabled users. We will also jointly target new
users for our combined technologies.” “This agreement with Norak harnesses
powerful reagent tools from the world’s experts in GPCR biology using the
leading HCS platform in drug discovery,” stated Dan Calvo, President and CEO at
Cellomics. He adds, “Through our combined offering, we are now enabling a new
efficiency in GPCR discovery that unites the earliest “biology-centric” stages
of the drug discovery process with downstream “chemi-centric” stages where later
stage drug candidates are optimized. Combined on a single platform, both
deorphaning capabilities and GPCR functional characterization assays will be
provided to HCS customers for the first time.” Indeed, GPCRs are the most
heavily represented target class of the top-selling 100 drugs available today.
Norak Biosciences, Inc., headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC, is a
private biotechnology company. Norak is utilizing its proprietary Transfluor
technology to become a world leader in the discovery and development of drugs
that regulate G protein-coupled receptors. For more information about Norak
Biosciences, Inc., please visit the Company’s website at
http://www.norakbio.com. Cellomics, Inc., a privately held corporation founded
in October 1996, pioneered the field of High Content Screening, defined as
automated analysis of cell arrays according to temporal, spatial distribution,
environment, and/or activity of fluorescently labeled cell constituents,
resulting in new knowledge on cellular functions. Cellomics is leveraging their
current fourth generation instrument platform and the largest HCS installed base
in the life sciences markets to proliferate HCS through a turnkey series of
desktop software modules, vHCS Discovery Toolbox, for significant productivity
enhancements throughout the drug discovery process.
For further information, contact:
Judy P. Masucci, PhD Director, Marketing Cellomics, Inc. 100
Technology Drive Pittsburgh, PA 15219 412.770.2353 412.770.2450
(fax)
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Norak Biosciences and Cellomics Sign Transfluor® Sales and Marketing Agreement
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