InforMax, Amersham Biosciences Sign Distribution Agreement for Bioinformatics Software in Latin America
Companies Leverage Core Capabilities and Product Strengths to Provide Bioinformatics Solutions in Rapidly Growing Market
PISCATAWAY, N.J. & BETHESDA, Md.--(BW HealthWire)--Oct. 26, 2001-- InforMax, Inc. (Nasdaq:INMX - news), a leading global provider of bioinformatics software solutions for accelerated discovery research, and Amersham Biosciences (formerly Amersham Pharmacia Biotech), a leading global manufacturer of high-throughput systems for life science research and drug discovery and development, today announced an agreement for the exclusive distribution of the InforMax desktop software products in Latin America.
Under the terms of the agreement, Amersham Biosciences, through its Latin American offices will distribute InforMax's Vector NTI® Suite in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Guyana, Colombia, Peru, Surinam, French Guiana, Chile, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and all Caribbean countries, excluding Cuba.
``We are extremely pleased that the partnership between InforMax and Amersham Biosciences has been extended to include distribution of our award-winning desktop software products in an important emerging market,'' said Alex Titomirov, Ph.D., InforMax chief executive officer and chairman. ``Amersham Biosciences' leadership position in Latin America will be instrumental in expanding our customer base in those countries.''
It is estimated that the Latin American high throughput sequencing markets have more than doubled in size over the last two years. In January 2001, The National Council of Technologic and Scientific Development, a division of Brazil's Science and Technology Ministry, purchased 25 MegaBACE(TM) 500 DNA analysis systems from Amersham Biosciences.
Additionally, the Brazilian Genome Project, a network of laboratories in fifteen states in Brazil, is using the MegaBACE systems to sequence the genome of Chromobacterium violaceum , a bacteria in the Amazon region.
``Amersham Biosciences is proud to be the established leader in providing high-throughput sequencing systems to the Latin American market,'' said Andrew Whiteley, VP of Bioinformatics and Integrated Systems, Amersham Biosciences. ``Through this agreement, we will continue to meet customer needs by providing them with access to the high quality software from InforMax that will help them expand their bioinformatics capabilities.''
In September 2000, Amersham Biosciences announced a strategic collaboration with InforMax to integrate Amersham Biosciences' diverse high throughput platforms with GenoMax(TM), InforMax's flagship enterprise bioinformatics product, to create a higher value proposition for pharmaceutical and biotech industry customers.
As a part of the collaboration, Amersham Biosciences invested in the equity of InforMax, Inc.
Vector NTI Suite is a comprehensive collection of desktop molecular biology software tools that support High-Throughput Research(TM) (HTR), InforMax's process for minimizing the time and cost of both discovering and validating valuable targets for pharmaceutical, therapeutic, and diagnostic development.
The advanced application programs that comprise this software suite include: Vector NTI® for data management, mapping and strategic recombinant design; BioPlot® for protein and nucleic acid sequence analysis; AlignX® for multiple sequence alignment; and ContigExpress® for sequencing project management and fragment assembly.
About InforMax
InforMax (Nasdaq:INMX - news) is a leading global developer of bioinformatics software for High-Throughput Research(TM). Founded in 1990, InforMax products are used by over 1,800 research organizations and more than 28,000 individual scientists worldwide (as of September 30, 2001) to understand and extract value from the massive amounts of data being generated by the Genomic Revolution.
Among the Company's customers are 23 of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies. The Company's mission is to support the scientific community in drug discovery and to better understand the causes of disease.
Our comprehensive portfolio of bioinformatics software solutions help scientists increase effectiveness and reduce the time and investment it takes to identify and validate biological targets and discover treatments for disease. InforMax bioinformatics software solutions enable a full range of gene-to-genome analysis, interpretation and data mining.
Our market-leading products include Vector NTI® Suite, the most widely used software suite for enhancing laboratory productivity, and GenoMax(TM), a modular family of analysis programs for integrated analysis of genomic and proteomic data. Additional information about InforMax can be found at the Company's Web site at informaxinc.com.
About Amersham Biosciences
Amersham Biosciences, the life sciences business of Amersham plc, is a world leader in developing and providing integrated systems and solutions for disease research, drug development and manufacture. Our systems are used to uncover the function of genes and proteins, for the discovery and development of drugs and for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals.
The customers for Amersham Biosciences' products and technology are pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and research and academic institutions, principally in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. For more information about our company, please visit amershambiosciences.com |
