Sojitz Corporation (Sojitz) is pleased to announce that Pharmidex Pharmaceutical Services Ltd (Pharmidex), a UK based company has appointed the company as its sole agent in Japan.

Pharmidex has developed technologies for screening promising therapeutic and diagnostic compounds for the treatment and diagnosis of CNS (Central Nervous System) related diseases, in order to increase the success rate of and shorten the period for the development of new drugs.

In the CNS field, there are many diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, for which many patients are looking forward to more effective treatment. However, one obstacle to CNS drug development is the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which restricts the delivery of effective drugs from the blood to the brain. In CNS drug development, the major challenges are to discover compounds that cross the BBB effectively and to screen compounds that are found to be effective.

Pharmidex technologies both predict and assess the ability of drug candidate compounds to cross the BBB and enter the brain. Assessment is by in vitro, ex vivo and in vitro assays. By applying Pharmidex technologies, compounds with high BBB permeability can be identified effectively at various stages of the drug discovery process.

Consequently, it is expected that the success rate of CNS drug development is improved, the necessary time of and cost for development of the drugs is reduced, and the time-to-market for the drugs will be shortened.

Pharmidex is pleased to offer 'NeuroPKR', its platform technology for extensive drug discovery:

• Validity™
  Behavioral and neurochemical profiling of transgenic animals
• Clarity™
  In silico technology to predict the ability of compounds to cross the BBB
• Penetrability™
  Assessment of the ability of compounds to cross the BBB using cultured cells which overexpress human P-glycoprotein
• IntegrityXPRESS™
  PK profiling in blood and brain with animals
• Integrity™
  Assessment of brain exposure, therapeutic efficacy and side effect liability using tissue microdialysis
• IntegrityPLUS™
  Quantitative determination of optimum drug candidate dosage
• ClinPK™
  Providing PK information using microdialysis with samples from human blood and tissue

Sojitz will collaborate with Pharmidex in the promotion of their contract research services in the Japanese market, as they develop their business by establishing partnerships with Japanese pharmaceutical companies that develop new drugs.

Pharmidex, which was founded in 2002 by Dr Alan M. Palmer and Dr Mohammad S. Alavijeh and has its offices in London (U.K.) and San Diego (U.S.), is forming partnerships with customer companies globally. In 2005, Pharmidex was awarded the 'Service Company of the Year' award in the U.K.; the first company in the biotechnology sector to receive such an award. Pharmidex Executive Chairman, Dr. Alan Palmer also earned the honor of 'London's Biotech Entrepreneur of the Year" in London, U.K.

Dr Palmer: "There is a huge effort in Japan to discover new medicines for disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), and we are delighted to work with Sojitz to help promote our offering to Japanese pharmaceutical companies with an active interest in CNS drug discovery. We very much look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration."

Sojitz Corporation develops businesses with overseas biotech venture companies that develop new potential technologies and products, jointly in the Japanese market. Sojitz is exploring new business opportunities to develop and expand new business globally by offering essential business functions such as strategic partnerships, marketing, trading, distribution, financial arrangements, etc., to growing venture companies, as well as by providing overseas venture companies with the convenience of the business base in Japan, and by taking full advantage of the network it has built and the know-how it has accumulated over a long period of time..

Pharmidex Corporate Profile

Year Established 2002 Head office 72 New Bond Street, London W1S 1RR U.K. Representative Dr. Mohammad S. Alavijeh, Co-founder and Managing Director Website http://www.pharmidex.com/