Laval Québec, Canada, and San Diego CA, USA, December 17, 2001 -- Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. and Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. (SBI) have agreed on a research collaboration to use SBI’s Variome™ database for Boehringer Ingelheim’s in silico drug discovery of HIV protein targets. Variome™ is a structural pharmacogenomics database consisting of more than 100,000 variant, 3-D protein structures of X-ray crystallographic quality. Terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

Dr. Paul Anderson, Senior Vice President R&D of Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd., part of the Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies commented: “We are looking forward to this collaboration with Structural Bioinformatics because of their unique proprietary approach to analyzing mutated HIV protein structures. It is our anticipation that this approach will enable us, at an early stage in the process, to incorporate mutational information in the design of our anti-HIV drugs.”

“We are excited about this research collaboration as it will enable Boehringer Ingelheim scientists to predict drug activity and rapidly prioritize early-stage compounds,” stated Edward T. Maggio, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. “Our initial focus has been on the creation of the world’s most comprehensive structural variant database for the HIV protease and reverse transcriptase. We expect to move forward into anti-bacterial targets next,” Dr. Maggio added.

SBI’s Variome™ database of 3-D protein structures is derived from the DNA sequences of known disease targets isolated from more than 30,000 individual patient samples. Variome™ provides the key to determining the interactions between a drug and its polymorphic targets, allowing researchers to account for patient-to-patient differences in drug activity. By incorporating protein structural knowledge at the design stages of drug discovery, drug candidates can be synthesized against the greatest number of polymorphic variations of an active binding site, permitting the assessment of drug efficacy prior to conducting clinical trials.

Variome™ data are derived from viral genotypes taken from patient specimens that have been analyzed by SBI’s partner, Quest Diagnostics. To protect the confidentiality of patient records, all data in the Variome™ database have been stripped of clinical information, rendering it anonymous.

About Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd.

The Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies, headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, is one of the 20 leading pharmaceutical corporations in the world. In 2000, it posted revenues of more than EUR 6 billion. Boehringer Ingelheim, which has some 140 affiliated companies worldwide, focuses on human pharmaceuticals and animal health. The human pharmaceuticals business, which accounts for 95% of sales, is comprised of prescription medicines, consumer health care products, chemicals and biopharmaceuticals for industrial customers. Research and development, production, and distribution facilities are located around the globe. In 2000, Boehringer Ingelheim spent almost EUR 1.0 billion on R&D, equivalent to 16% of net sales.

Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. (BICL) headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, started operations in 1972 and has more than 500 employees. The Canadian affiliate is a research-driven company that contributes a significant percentage of revenues to fund pharmaceutical research and development in Canada. In Laval, Quebec, BICL has built up one of Canada's largest pharmaceutical research centres - Boehringer Ingelheim’s centre for excellence in virology research and part of its seven-strong network of research and development sites worldwide. For more information on Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd., please see the Internet website: http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.ca

About Structural Bioinformatics, Inc.

Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. (SBI) is an innovative drug discovery company built on a proprietary proteomics platform. SBI has developed advanced technologies that unify 3-D protein structural information with pharmacogenomics, bioinformatics, and chemistry solutions. The company’s contract services and database products accelerate drug discovery through a fusion of computational and experimental design methodologies. SBI’s premiere contract drug discovery service, Genes to Leads®, provides initial drug hits within 120 days. Customers can also have access to 3-D protein structures of atomic resolution via a suite of database products, which include the ProMax™ database of over 3,000 structures, the Variome™ structural pharmacogenomics database, and StructureBank™, a relational database. SBI has offices in San Diego, Calif.; Cambridge, Mass.; Washington, D.C., and Hørsholm, Denmark. For more information, please visit SBI’s website at http://www.strubix.com