Albany Molecular Research, Inc. Announces New, Subscription-Only Lead Discovery Libraries.

Business Editors

Drug Discovery Technology 2002

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 5, 2002

High Purity, Drug-Like Synthetic Libraries Available On A Limited

Basis

Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMRI) announced today that it is developing a series of unique small molecule, synthetic combinatorial chemistry libraries that will be available semi-exclusively for drug discovery purposes to a limited number of subscribers.

The announcement was made in conjunction with the 7th Annual Drug Discovery Technology(TM) World Congress in Boston, MA.

AMRI's new "Semi-Exclusive Subscription Libraries" will consist of a series of offerings, each with approximately 30,000 drug-like small molecule compounds for biological screening. Each library will include 45 to 60 drug-like scaffolds designed and synthesized by AMRI, with approximately 500 compounds per scaffold.

AMRI is selecting scaffolds based on their potential to contain certain drug-like backbones. Each scaffold will contain one to four points of diversity. In addition, AMRI is further selecting compounds in the libraries using computational chemistry, in order to ensure that they meet pre-defined parameters consistent with existing drugs on the market. All compounds will have purity greater than 85 percent.

"Our subscription-based discovery libraries are designed to broaden chemical diversity beyond what is available from other sources," said AMRI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas E. D'Ambra, Ph.D. "Therefore, these compounds should complement existing chemical libraries and provide an improved starting position for identifying high quality hits or leads in screening programs. All of AMRI's libraries can be fully supported by hit-to-lead and lead-to-candidate optimization chemistries, one of AMRI's core strengths."

For companies interested in making their own libraries, AMRI offers a series of pharmacologically interesting platforms.

Custom Combinatorial Libraries 

In addition to its new Semi-Exclusive Subscription Libraries, AMRI also creates custom combinatorial chemistry libraries on an individual basis for customers and has synthesized over half a million compounds in such libraries over the past five years. Broad lead-seeking libraries can contain hundreds or thousands of diverse compounds useful for screening against a variety of targets. Focused lead optimization libraries can include smaller numbers of custom made compounds with specific structural characteristics, focused on a single drug target or active lead molecule.

Chemical Sample Collection

To complement its chemical diversity capabilities, AMRI is also building a screening collection that will ultimately contain over 100,000 drug-like compounds selected from a database of 2.5 million unique, commercially available chemical structures. To maximize diversity and physiochemical properties, AMRI scientists developed computational algorithms that evaluate each compound's drug-like and crude ADME characteristics. In order to sort compounds for diversity comparison, AMRI is utilizing a novel partitioning algorithm.

"These synthetic libraries, along with our natural products extracts and partially purified extract libraries, provide a broad gateway into a comprehensive R&D program, both for pharmaceutical companies looking to maintain a robust pipeline of promising lead compounds, as well as target-rich biotechnology and genomics companies looking for compounds to screen in their proprietary assays," added Dr. D'Ambra.

Parties interested in more information about any of AMRI's library offerings should contact Cheryl D. Garr, Ph.D., director of business development, at 425-424-7266.

Albany Molecular Research, Inc. is a leading chemistry research, drug discovery and development company focusing on applications for the life sciences industries. The company performs comprehensive research, development or manufacture for many of the leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and for its own internal drug discovery and development.

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may be identified by forward-looking words such as "may," "could," "should," "would," "will," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "believe" and "continue" or similar words. Readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. The company's actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors, some of which the company may not be able to predict and may not be within the company's control. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to (a) the company's ability to attract and retain experienced scientists, (b) trends in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies outsourcing chemical research and development, (c) the company's ability to take advantage of proprietary technology and expand the scientific tools available to it, and (d) the company's ability to create and market its drug discovery libraries, integrate these libraries with its existing technologies and provide an improved starting position for identifying high quality leads in screening programs, as well as those factors discussed in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1, 2002 and the company's other SEC filings. The company does not undertake any duty to and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release after the date of this press release.