13 September 1999

Integrated discovery environment for combinatorial chemists

ChemOvation and IDBS have announced today, at the Society for Biomolecular Screening Conference in Edinburgh, that they have signed a collaborative agreement to tailor IDBS' ActivityBase software environment for combinatorial chemistry.

ActivityBase is the recognised industry standard solution for biological data management. The collaboration will involve ChemOvation working alongside IDBS to develop ActivityBase for specific use by companies working with combinatorial chemistry. In this field, the management of the sheer numbers and range of compounds being designed at any one time presents major challenges. IDBS and ChemOvation will be working together to produce a custom solution for combinatorial chemistry to guarantee the accurate and effective electronic tracking of large quantities of data on compound synthesis methods, properties and other physicochemical data.

Neil Kipling, IDBS' Chairman and CEO said, "Whilst ActivityBase has proved successful for combinatorial chemistry, we relish the opportunity to work with ChemOvation, an innovative new player in combi-chem, to make ActivityBase an outstanding solution for combinatorial chemists." Roger Shaw, an IDBS consultant working with ChemOvation, added, "We will be approaching this project from the bottom up. The flexibility of ActivityBase allows us to assess precisely the functionality required, and then devise a solution based on the principles of solid data management to fulfil the needs of end-users."

The ActivityBase chemistry modules enable scientists to register, store and search chemical structure information alongside all their biological discovery data. By working with ChemOvation, IDBS will enhance the functionality of ActivityBase to provide a fully integrated discovery environment for combinatorial chemists. The functionality will also extend to other business applications, for example to simplify ordering and stock control of chemical building blocks.

ChemOvation offers customers a comprehensive information package to support its innovative compound libraries. "With a custom-designed database like ActivityBase in place, our clients will be able to start drug candidate realisation confident that they have all relevant background data immediately to hand", said ChemOvation's CEO Alan Stuttle.

Further Information:

Dr Keith Menear

ChemOvation Ltd
Foundry Lane
Horsham
West Sussex, RH13 5PX
United Kingdom

Phone +44 (0)1403 248844
Fax +44 (0)1403 248855
Email:keith.menear@chemovation.com
Website: www.chemovation.com