SAN DIEGO, CA - (November 7, 2000) - Privately held Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. (SBI) today announced that Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has designated a lead compound, arising from its multi-year collaboration with SBI, for in-house development. As previously announced, the collaboration focuses on the discovery of new anti-inflammatory therapeutics directed against a novel target. Structural Bioinformatics used its proprietary protein modeling and DynaPharm^TM technologies to find small-molecule leads starting from the gene sequence of the protein target. The name of the target will remain confidential under the terms of the current agreement. Structural Bioinformatics will receive additional milestone and royalty payments upon successful completion of Yamanouchi's development efforts.

"We are pleased with the success of this collaboration," said Dr. Edward T. Maggio, Chairman, President and CEO of Structural Bioinformatics. "Yamanouchi demanded quite stringent binding affinity and specificity requirements for this difficult target. Nevertheless, SBI provided a number of lead molecules for the target covering a number of chemical scaffolds."

Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is the third-largest pharmaceutical company in Japan. Headquartered in Tokyo and established in 1923, Yamanouchi is expanding its business base to Europe, the United States and Asia and employs nearly 9,000 people worldwide. As a research-based developer, manufacturer and marketer, Yamanouchi has introduced several world-class drugs to the international market, including the H2 antagonist famotidine, the calcium antagonist nicardipine, and tamsulosin, a treatment for functional symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Structural Bioinformatics is a world leader in computational proteomics -- the large-scale generation and use of protein structure and protein structural information. The Company has developed advanced technologies to generate highly refined three-dimensional structural models of proteins from primary genetic information and commercializes these technologies through its structural database products and through drug discovery collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies. SBI has offices in San Diego, CA and Hørsholm, Denmark.