Berlex Biosciences Expands Licensing of Biotique Systems' Data Integration Solution.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

BIOWIRE2K

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 2004

Biotique Systems today announced that Berlex Biosciences has subscribed to a three-year license to the Biotique Local Integration System (BLIS) that provides worldwide access to Schering AG Germany research operations. The license agreement expands a previous agreement whereby Berlex, the U.S. affiliate of Schering AG Germany (NYSE:SHR), licensed the BLIS system for its research operations in Richmond, California.

"The BLIS platform is very flexible and easy-to-use, and has enabled us to quickly leverage genomic data in our research," said Hugh Salamon, Sr. Computational Biologist leading the Computational Biology Department at Berlex Biosciences. "Based on our positive experience and the interest of our Schering colleagues in the system, our international collaboration team has chosen to secure a global license for BLIS. Using Biotique's platform, we are able to standardize integration of sequence collections for data analysis, and also facilitate investigations into gene orthologues. This was an important step towards globalization of Schering research."

"We were delighted to expand our relationship with Berlex to provide our services to the entire Schering family of companies," said Stephen Sanders, Chairman and CEO of Biotique Systems. "We are also proud of the fact that this agreement continues our successful track record of continued customer renewals for the BLIS product, in addition to a number of expanded relationships that have resulted in global licenses."

The Biotique Local Integration System (BLIS) is a flexible, cost-effective and customizable framework for biological data integration that helps scientists bridge "data islands" to promote knowledge sharing and simplify the application of information assets to discovery and development. The system's flexibility and intuitive operating environment offer opportunities for organizations to increase the value of their proprietary and third party data resources and ultimately increase productivity.

Biotique offers a series of modules for BLIS designed to facilitate common functions, such as transcript profiling (BEAM) and comparative genomic tools (BMOD, BAGM) as well as a data refinery tool (BEDR) for the generation of novel IP through splice variant detection. The product's open framework also provides a customizable environment for users to easily link in-house developments, such as content repositories, algorithms and protocols, into the system.

About Biotique Systems

Biotique Systems is a privately held company that helps scientists in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies more effectively and efficiently analyze biological data to advance life science research. With offices and distributors in the United States, Europe and Japan, Biotique Systems provides its innovative pharmacoinformatic software and services to a number of the world's most successful biopharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Monsanto and Affymetrix. These and other customers are using Biotique's solutions to integrate information from discovery programs across disparate research disciplines and geographic locations to facilitate knowledge sharing and organizational productivity.

Biotique is enabling the next generation of pharmaceutical discovery and development. For more information about Biotique Systems, call 510-595-3110, or e-mail [e-mail], or visit www.biotiquesystems.com.

Biotique Systems, BLIS and the Biotique logo are trademarks of Biotique Systems, Inc.