Schering-Plough Research Institute Enters Hurel Corporation's Joint Scientific Collaboration to Develop ``Human-on-a-Chip'' Alternative to Animal Testing.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Hurel Corporation ("Hurel") announced today it has entered into a contract with Schering Corporation acting through its Schering-Plough Research Institute division ("SPRI"), under which SPRI joins the Joint Scientific Collaboration ("JSC") of pharmaceutical firms that has been organized by Hurel.

Under the agreement, SPRI will provide both scientific guidance and funding as Hurel continues its one-year R&D program aimed at validating and developing its microfluidic, "human-on-a-chip" cell-based assay platform technology (please see below). Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, LLC ("J&JPRD") was the first pharmaceutical firm to enter the JSC, which commenced R&D operations in January, 2006. Through the JSC, SPRI, J&JPRD, and Hurel will collectively advance the development of Hurel's proprietary technology, towards the ultimate goal of making Hurel's products and services ready for widespread use.

"Schering-Plough is deeply committed to seeking out and developing new technologies that will enable pharmaceutical scientists to rely less on animal testing as they search for and create new medicines," said Catherine D. Strader, Ph.D., executive vice president for discovery research, Schering-Plough Research Institute, the research and development arm of Schering-Plough Corporation. "We look forward to collaborating with Hurel and other participants in the JSC to address the scientific and technical issues with this exciting new approach."

Dr. Leslie Z. Benet, Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences at UCSF and Chairman of Hurel's Scientific Advisory Board, said, "At present there are no rapid preclinical tools to mimic the in vivo interplay of enzymes and transporters. What is needed is a simple flow-through assembly that must be amenable to incorporating hepatocytes and enterocytes, and should be high-throughput. Such a novel tool would provide great insights into the ADME of new molecular entities, expose the reasons for the discordance often found between the ADME characteristics of drug molecules across animal species versus humans, and thereby materially reduce the need to rely on animal studies of the metabolism of drugs intended for humans. I believe Hurel is that novel preclinical tool. Initial proof-of-principle verification studies performed on Hurel devices have yielded efficacy, toxicity and metabolic information that was not producible in conventional static, cell-based assays. I am looking forward to working with Schering-Plough as well as Johnson & Johnson towards realizing Hurel's full technical and scientific potential."

"SPRI brings prodigious technical firepower to the JSC," said Robert Freedman, CEO of Hurel. "We look forward to working with our new colleagues."

Hurel Corporation develops microfluidic assay platforms for cell-based studies. Invented at Cornell University, a patented Hurel(R) device is a "biochip" comprising one or more separate but microfluidically interconnected compartments. The compartments contain cultures of living cells drawn from and/or representing different organs or tissues of a human or other species. Channels interconnecting the compartments permit compounds and "blood surrogate" to recirculate as in a living system. The physical geometry of the system simulates certain pharmacokinetic parameters--drug residence time, circulatory transit time, or others--so as to mimic relevant aspects of the physiology of the living animal. When utilized with human cellular material, Hurel constitutes an "in vivo-surrogate" alternative to animal testing.

The Company's initial application--a device that models real-time protein binding, metabolism, and extraction in the liver--will comprise the world's first comprehensive, in vitro test of first-pass liver bioavailability. Other applications slated for development include devices for studying inter-organ toxicities (e.g., liver/lung or liver/kidney) and the integrated mechanisms of absorption and bioavailability of orally administered compounds.

Hurel anticipates launching its contract research services in 2007. Direct use of Hurel(R) devices is limited to JSC partners until such time as fully developed products are ready for general release. Hurel is currently in discussion with several additional, large pharmaceutical firms with respect to their joining J&JPRD and SPRI in the JSC.

Additional information is available at: www.hurelcorp.com.

Hurel(R) is a registered trademark.