Sygnature Discovery Ltd., a leading provider of integrated drug discovery services to the pharmaceutical industry, and Cyprotex Discovery Ltd., the world's largest specialist ADME-Tox/PK pre-clinical discovery and development CRO, today announced they have entered into an extension of their highly successful strategic alliance for a further 2 years.  Under the terms of the extension of the agreement, Sygnature and Cyprotex will expand their collaborative sales and marketing initiative to provide a fully-integrated discovery chemistry/ADME-Tox/DMPK service to accelerate their clients' drug discovery projects into development.

Dr Anthony Baxter, Chief Executive Offer at Cyprotex said, "We are delighted to have extended our strategic alliance with Sygnature.  The quality of their work and their desire to help customers achieve scientific success has enabled both of us to form a formidable combined offering in medicinal chemistry-driven integrated drug discovery and ADME-Tox services.  Since we commenced this relationship there have been several changes to both companies.  Both Sygnature and Cyprotex have expanded considerably, with Cyprotex acquiring Apredica, a Boston based ADME-Tox specialist CRO and the assets of Cellumen Inc, through which Cyprotex can now offer proprietary high content toxicology assays under the Cellciphr® brand name.  Sygnature have grown organically over the past two years and recently announced the formation of a strategic alliance with Saretius Limited, a pre-clinical experimental services company offering ‘gold standard' models in pain, CNS disorders, inflammatory and metabolic diseases.  Our experience with Sygnature over the past year has led us both to conclude that we can successfully deliver integrated drug discovery services to our customers, and we wish to strengthen this offering in the future."

Commenting on the partnership Dr Simon Hirst, Sygnature's CEO said, "We have found the strategic alliance with Cyprotex to be highly beneficial to our clients over the past two years.  Working with Cyprotex is a key component of our portfolio of pre-clinical services as we have grown and expanded to offer our clients integrated drug discovery services.  Cyprotex has an enviable reputation as a CRO which provides premium ADME-Tox/DMPK services, so I am delighted that we will continue working together for two more years to offer our clients an exceptional, fully-integrated drug discovery service.  At Sygnature, we strongly believe that modern drug discovery requires the marriage of medicinal chemistry, biology, in vitro ADME and disease-specific models.  Our team of over 50 medicinal chemists are experienced in using ADME data to drive programmes forward into proof-of-concept studies.  Over the past four years, Sygnature and Cyprotex have collaborated on a number of drug discovery programmes for clients.  We have a dedicated project manager at Cyprotex focused on our clients' projects, and scientists from both organisations have established a very close working relationship.  I am confident that future customers will see the benefits of working with Sygnature, Cyprotex and Saretius, acknowledged centres of excellence in their particular fields, to accelerate their drug discovery programmes forward into development."

About Sygnature Discovery Limited

Sygnature Discovery is a leading UK-based provider of integrated drug discovery services.  Sygnature employs over 50 laboratory-based medicinal chemists and bioscientists (in vitro biologists) in a modern, purpose-built facility in BioCity Nottingham.  Most of these scientists have PhDs and many have 10-22 years drug discovery experience with companies such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Merck and OSI Pharmaceuticals.  Sygnature's industry-experienced team adds considerable value to clients' discovery activities by undertaking complete drug discovery programmes and key elements of the drug discovery process, such as hit finding, hit-to-lead and lead optimisation.  Sygnature's scientists also provide significant intellectual input into clients' projects; thereby generating novel intellectual property.  Key areas of expertise include medicinal chemistry, bioscience, molecular modelling, ADME/toxicity (through a strategic alliance with Cyprotex Discovery) and pre-clinical experimental services (through a strategic alliance with Saretius). 

For more see www.sygnaturediscovery.com .

About Cyprotex PLC

Cyprotex is based in Macclesfield, near Manchester in the UK, and Watertown, Boston in the US and is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (CRX). The company was established in 1999 and works with more than 600 partners ranging from small biotechs to large pharma companies. Cyprotex acquired Apredica and the assets of Cellumen Inc. in August 2010 and the combined business provides support for a wide range of experimental and computational ADME-Tox and PK services, extending from early drug discovery through to IND submission. The company's core capabilities include high quality in vitro ADME screening services, mechanistic toxicology and high content toxicology screening services and predictive modelling using PBPK and QSAR techniques, including Cloe® PK for in vivo PK prediction. 

For more information, see www.cyprotex.com.