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Biotech / Medical : Munch-a-Biotech Today -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (1419)	1/9/2003 10:42:30 AM
From: keokalani'nui	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3158

Merck Tenders For Full Ownership Of Banyu Pharmaceutical Thursday January 9, 4:45 am ET WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. -(Dow Jones)- Merck & Co. plans to launch a tender offer to buy the 129.2 million Banyu Pharmaceutical Co. (J.BNY) shares it doesn't already own for Y1,400 a share. Merck, which currently holds 51% of Banyu stock, plans to make Banyu its largest wholly owned subsidiary outside the U.S. In a press release Thursday, Merck said Banyu's board passed a resolution supporting the tender offer. The offer, which is set to begin Jan. 14 and end March 6, is conditioned on Merck's receipt of at least 76.5 million shares, or at least an 80% stake in Banyu. The offer price represents a 31.9% premium to the stock's average closing price over the past month. Merck also said Kenjiro Nagasaka plans to step down as Banyu's president and chief executive officer in June. A search for his successor will begin immediately and consider candidates from inside and outside the Japanese firm

To: nigel bates who wrote (1419)	5/19/2003 9:02:37 AM
From: nigel bates	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3158

Cengent Therapeutics, A New Drug Discovery Company, Is Formed by the Merger of Structural Bioinformatics and GeneFormatics SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 19, 2003--Cengent Therapeutics, a new drug discovery company formed by the completion of the merger of Structural Bioinformatics and GeneFormatics, was announced today. The California Department of Corporations and the shareholders of both companies have approved the merger. Cengent Therapeutics is a structure-guided drug discovery company utilizing integrated, proprietary computational and experimental lab technologies to accelerate and optimize the drug discovery process. "There are several driving forces behind this merger and the creation of Cengent Therapeutics, namely an extended offering of products and services, enhanced drug discovery capabilities, and additional capital resources," stated Dr. Edward Maggio, CEO of Cengent Therapeutics. David D. Muth, President and COO, added, "These are exciting times. Cengent Therapeutics will serve the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with our leading services for accelerating and optimizing the drug discovery process. Additionally, we will pursue corporate collaborations to advance our pipeline." Cengent Therapeutics provides the most comprehensive suite of structural services and capabilities for accelerating and optimizing the drug discovery process. The company's technologies include Genes To Leads® to accelerate and validate lead discovery; Structure Determination Services including augmented homology modeling, X-ray crystallography, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy; StructureBank®, a database for the comparative analysis of protein targets and anti-targets; Proteome Analysis, a suite of technologies providing target identification and function information; and DBA for data-mining and pattern recognition. The company has established corporate partnerships with Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, Yamanouchi, Incyte, Analex (Advanced Biosystems), De Novo Pharmaceuticals, ArQule, AtheroGenics, Shire Pharmaceuticals, and Texas Biotechnology, that has advanced Sitaxsentan, a drug lead identified with Cengent's Genes To Leads® technology to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), into Phase III clinical trials. About Cengent Therapeutics Cengent Therapeutics is a structure-guided drug discovery company utilizing integrated, proprietary computational and experimental lab technologies to accelerate and optimize the drug discovery process. Cengent was formed following the synergistic merger of Structural Bioinformatics Inc. and GeneFormatics, both leaders in structure-driven drug discovery. Cengent currently has four pre-clinical programs in obesity/diabetes, anti-infectives, oncology, and inflammation. In addition to its internal pipeline, the company has applied its technologies to advance the drug discovery programs of external collaborators. The company has raised over $90 million to date from investors including Perseus Soros, New York Life, Burrill & Company, BioAsia, IngelWood Ventures, TaKaRa Shuzo, Deutsch Asset Management, and Dansk Kapitalantaeg. Cengent is headquartered in San Diego, CA, with European headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, and operations in Cambridge, MA; Washington, DC; and Harrisburg, PA. For more information on Cengent Therapeutics, its extensive drug pipeline, products, and services, please visit the company's Web site at cengent.com.