Overview

Discovery Partners International Inc. is focused on providing the platforms, services and information available to complement the internal drug discovery efforts of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies.

The company offers a range of integrated drug discovery products and services, including computational chemistry services for target characterization; lead generation and lead optimization; advanced chemistry services for the design and synthesis of combinatorial libraries and customized compound synthesis; high-throughput screening services for assay development; high-throughput synthesis equipment; rapid identification and characterization of active compounds against targets; and gene expression analysis through its four principal business groups: ChemRx Advanced Technologies, Discovery Technologies Ltd., IRORI and Structural Proteomics.

DPI was founded in 1995 as IRORI and in 1998 changed its name. The company has expanded its technology by acquiring several companies, including Systems Integration Drug Discovery Company Inc., a privately held Tucson, Ariz.-based firm that provides chemistry services and compound libraries to biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies. In 2000, DPI acquired Axys Advanced Technologies Inc., of South San Francisco; Discovery Technologies Ltd., of Switzerland; and Structural Proteomics, of San Diego. In May 2001, DPI acquired Xenometrix Inc., of Boulder, Colo., and its proprietary gene profiling technology and in vitro predictive toxicology capabilities.

Partners

Expanded agreement to include drug discovery research collaboration for a proprietary target: Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd.

Drug discovery agreement for high-throughput screening, chemistry and informatics services: Xenon Genetics Inc.

Collaborative research agreement to identify drug leads for the treatment of colon cancer: The Genetics Co. Inc.

Design and synthesize compounds from an unnamed class of biological targets: Maxia Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Research collaboration to optimize the drug-like qualities of broad-spectrum antifungal compound series: Microcide Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Other biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners and customers include Abbott Laboratories Inc., Amgen Inc., AstraZeneca plc, Aventis Pharma AG, Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Dupont Crop Protection, Johnson and Johnson, Merck and Co. Inc., Parke-Davis, Pharmacia Corp., the Procter and Gamble Co., Roche, Schering-Plough Corp. and SmithKline Beecham.