Clarkston Group and Viaken Systems Form Strategic Alliance; New alliance will provide the life science industry with a single resource for total IT solution.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

GAITHERSBURG, Md.--(BW HealthWire)--Oct. 31, 2000

Clarkston, a high technology and e-business consulting firm, has formed a strategic alliance with Viaken Systems Inc., the premier hosted informatics solutions provider for the life science industry, specializing in outsourced research informatics solutions for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical markets.

The alliance will capitalize on Clarkston's process, e-business strategy, and technology integration capabilities and Viaken's platform for hosting, managing, and supporting tier-one research informatics and front and back office solutions specifically designed for the life science industry.

Clarkston's alliance with Viaken will help to accelerate the drug discovery process by providing end-to-end informatics and business solutions for life science companies.

Together, the companies will generate innovative solutions that provide a cost-effective way of building, maintaining, and supporting a highly competitive research informatics and operations technology infrastructure without the need to invest in large scale IT teams and equipment.

The result will be a streamlined process, from drug discovery to manufacturing, which will help customers achieve competitive advantage. The competencies, experience, and expertise of Viaken and Clarkston will enable life science companies, from Fortune 500 pharmaceuticals to emerging biotechnology firms, to fully leverage the power of IT in the discovery process.

Monty Hamilton, vice president of Business Development for Clarkston, put the alliance in perspective, "Clarkston has long been recognized for providing powerful, enterprise solutions for the demand chain and supply chain functions for life science firms. Now, we have the opportunity to leverage our project management and solutions expertise with Viaken's drug discovery expertise to help our pharmaceutical and biotech clients in the early stages of the drug development process. This alliance will enable our clients to discover promising drug compounds faster, and get them to the market sooner and at less cost."

"Our clients are looking for one-stop shopping and a single point of accountability for their IT solutions, whether the solution is for drug discovery or enterprise resource planning," explained Dr. Keith O. Elliston, president and CEO of Viaken. "Through this alliance, we can be the complete outsourced IT organization for biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Our clients can now work with one resource to design, implement, and maintain a complete portfolio of IT solutions covering the R&D, manufacturing, and distribution aspects of life science companies, as well as additional back office operations."

About Clarkston

Clarkston helps its clients Seize the Advantage(TM) by providing comprehensive, strategic business solutions driven by e-business. The company harnesses the power of the Internet to unleash its clients' business potential by providing a full range of services including strategy, implementation and application support.

Through a client partnership approach, Clarkston collaborates with its clients to articulate a competitive business vision and assemble a high-energy deployment team to build business models with Coherent Speed.

Clarkston guides clients in the pharmaceutical, high technology, telecommunications, and manufacturing markets. The company has locations in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Durham, San Francisco and India. For more information, visit Clarkston's Web site at www.clarkstongroup.com.

About Viaken

Viaken Systems is the premier hosted informatics solutions provider for the life sciences, providing enabling solutions for biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and agricultural research and development.

Viaken provides a range of informatics solutions including hosting of research informatics software and databases, strategic research informatics services, High Performance Computing, and primary user support to its customers in the life sciences.

The company has developed a secure optimized hosting platform called the Viaken Informatics Environment that provides its customers with access to scalable informatics platforms customizable to their specific needs.

Viaken also hosts and manages a platform that facilitates business-to-business e-commerce specifically designed for the life science industry. Viaken is a privately held company, headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. For more information on Viaken, visit www.viaken.com or call 1-877-2VIAKEN.

Viaken is a trademark of Viaken Systems Inc. All other products or company names are used for identification purposes only, and may be the trademarks of their respective owners.