Tapping London-based bioinformatics company Inpharmatica to find functions for gene sequences through 3-dimensional structure analysis, Genentech Inc. said it will take a minority stake as well as pay subscription fees, milestones and potential royalties on a limited number of products that might be developed.

Described as a multimillion-dollar, three-year deal, it includes a subscription for Genentech to Inpharmatica's Biopendium proteomics platform, which mines sequence data in silico for target identification. Another database product, Chematica, which is intended to match small molecules to protein binding sites, is not part of the deal.

Inpharmatica's first partner for Biopendium was Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research, a division of Warner-Lambert Co., of Morris Plains, N.J., which signed its agreement in January 2000. Genentech is the second.

Genentech's stock (NYSE:DNA) closed Wednesday at $44.75, down $2.25. - Randall Osborne