BioWorld International Correspondent

BORNHEIM, Germany LION bioscience AG, through its acquisition of San Diego-based Trega Biosciences Inc. in 2000 and the purchase of Cleveland-based Netgenics Inc. last month, said it has the components needed to become a one-stop shop of integrated bio- and chem-informatic technologies for the life science industry.

Now LION intends to use synergies rising from the acquisitions. It is streamlining its global structure, operations and headcount.

Heidelberg, Germany-based LION plans to reduce staff from about 580 to about 500 by next April.

Staff reductions will affect all the company’s fields of activities and all its locations, which are in Heidelberg; Cambridge, UK; Cambridge, Mass.; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; and San Diego.

Staff adjustments will include an increase in headcount in LION’s global business organization and the company’s professional service teams.

Information technology-driven drug discovery will be focused in Heidelberg and San Diego. Both sites are demonstrating the application of LION bioinformatics solutions in life science research, while generating proprietary knowledge as the basis for future revenue, LION said.

The measures of streamlining are expected to support cost containment and its growth target, LION said. It plans to break even in fiscal year 2003-04, which begins in April 2003.