HBIO Awarded Patent for ADMET Screening Technology.

Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers

BIOWIRE2K

HOLLISTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 2002

Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq: HBIO) announced today that it has been awarded U.S. patent number 6,458,275 on a novel device called the Equilibrium Dialyzer96(TM). This device is used to screen potential drugs for their ADMET properties. ADMET stands for absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination and toxicology. The process of determining the ADMET properties of a drug is widely viewed as a key bottleneck in the drug discovery process. According to independent studies (R. Lipper, Modern Drug Discovery, 1999) poor ADMET properties cause 63% of the failures of drugs during expensive late-stage clinical trials. This invention can significantly improve productivity in determining the distribution component of ADMET.

In addition to ADMET screening, the device can also be used to screen potential drugs for their ability to attach themselves to disease related proteins without having to go through the complex and time consuming step of assay development using fluorescent or radioactive labels.

Equilibrium dialysis exploits the natural tendency of molecules to seek equilibrium (i.e., to diffuse from regions of higher concentration to regions of lower concentration). Drug molecules are typically much smaller than protein molecules. In equilibrium dialysis, the drug molecule is mixed with the protein and they are both added to one side of the 96 well plate. The other side is filled with water and the two sides are separated by a semi-permeable membrane. The drug molecules are small enough to diffuse through the membrane but the protein molecules are not. The semi-permeable membrane effectively acts as a molecular sieve. If the drug molecules attach to the protein, the bound drug molecules will not be able to cross the membrane and equilibrium will be reached at a lower concentration of the drug molecule than if there is no binding of the drug to the protein. This change in concentration can be measured and is mathematically related to the strength of binding of the drug to the protein.

The patent issued to Harvard Bioscience is for an equilibrium dialysis system that enables samples to be prepared simultaneously in multiples. The current model is a 96-well device that allows 96 samples to be prepared at one time thus enabling higher throughput than using conventional single sample devices.

About Harvard Bioscience, Inc.

Harvard Bioscience is a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialized products, primarily scientific instruments, used to accelerate drug discovery research at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities and government laboratories worldwide. HBIO sells its products to thousands of researchers in over 100 countries through its direct sales force, its 1,000 page catalog (and various other specialty catalogs), and through its distributors, including Amersham Biosciences and PerkinElmer. HBIO has sales and manufacturing operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Belgium with sales facilities in Japan, France and Canada. For more information please visit www.harvardbioscience.com

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