Anadys Announces Publication of Key Technology for Microbial Genomics.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

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SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--June 18, 2001

Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced today the publication of a description of Anadys' proprietary GATE(TM) (Genetically Assisted Target Evaluation) technology in the journal Pharmacogenomics (2001 2(2) pp. 95-106).

GATE(TM) is a versatile microbial target validation approach that identifies essential genes in bacteria and fungi. Knowledge of gene essentiality is an important step in translating genomic information into small molecules.

The published article describes how GATE(TM) was implemented in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to identify important targets for screening efforts. "GATE(TM) is a powerful technique for prioritizing fungal or bacterial targets for drug screening because it can model effects such as the rate of and degree to which a target is removed from cellular metabolism," said Anadys' senior vice president, Devron Averett, Ph.D. "Drugs vary in the magnitude of their effect on a molecular target, and thus GATE(TM) mimics the actions of drugs to a much greater degree than other methods such as gene knockout which are all-or-none in their effect."

GATE(TM) is part of the family of proprietary technologies that Anadys uses in the pursuit of treatments for infectious disease. GATE(TM)-validated targets can then be formatted for screening to identify compounds that inhibit the function of the target. Screening can be done using ATLAS(TM), a proprietary affinity-based technology that requires no a priori knowledge of the target's function. Hits from screening are evaluated using Anadys' cheminformatics software PROTOS(TM) and elaborated into drug candidates using Anadys' substantial capabilities in high-output medicinal chemistry.

Steve Worland, Ph.D., Anadys' chief scientific officer, commented, "GATE(TM) is unbiased as to the microbial targets it can explore. Furthermore, Anadys is in a particularly favorable position to exploit the entire spectrum of GATE(TM)-validated targets because ATLAS(TM) enables us to pursue the most attractive biological targets without restricting ourselves to targets of known function."

About Anadys Pharmaceuticals

Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a new generation drug discovery company committed to the translation of genomic information into small molecules. The company employs proprietary technologies in microbial genomics (GATE(TM)), affinity-based compound screening against targets of both known and unknown function (ATLAS(TM)), world-class high-output medicinal chemistry, and cheminformatics including proprietary software (PROTOS(TM)) to develop a portfolio of novel anti-infective products. The company also intends to become a sector leader in the emerging field of Riboproteomics(TM), the study of RNA-protein interactions and the development of novel therapeutic compounds that target these interactions. RNA has been validated as a target for the treatment of infectious diseases with approved drugs such as neomycin and tobramycin. In addition, Anadys has a comprehensive pipeline including RNA-specific targets and compounds that bind to RNA, a number of advanced antibacterial and antiviral discovery programs, as well as anti-infective preclinical development candidates.

For more information, please visit www.anadyspharma.com.