XCELERON GETS AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT.

Xceleron, U.K., a pioneering service provider specializing in zeptoanalysis to accelerate drug development, has won the Yorkshire Bioscience Award for International Achievement. The award, organized by Yorkshire Forward, recognizes and rewards companies for leading innovation and achievement in the region's growing bioscience sector.

Xceleron was recognized for its recent achievements overseas following the establishment of its subsidiary in the US and the growth of its customer base in both Europe and Japan.

Professor Colin Garner, CEO, commented: "We are extremely pleased to receive this award. It's a fantastic achievement and I'd like to thank everyone at Xceleron for their contribution. Our aim is to continue to build a leading international business using our pioneering technology to benefit the global pharmaceutical industry and bring new medicines to people more quickly."

Xceleron is the only good laboratory practice (GLP) - accredited biomedical facility in the world with unique expertise in the field of zeptobiology - ultra-sensitive drug and metabolite analysis using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). AMS enables the pharmacokinetic (PK) measurement of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs administered to humans in microdose quantities. The company's approach facilitates Phase 0 early human trials to identify the metabolic fate of a drug at the single molecule level. To date, studies have consistently shown data linearity between Phase 0 microdosing and traditional Phase I PK measures. Xceleron's technology offers streamlined clinical development with combined Phase I and mass balance studies, early detection of human specific metabolites, and absolute bioavailability studies which measure drug levels of simultaneously administered IV and oral doses in the same patient.

About Xceleron Ltd.

Xceleron is a commercial biomedical AMS company having used its zeptoanalysis techniques to study the metabolism of nearly 100 different candidate drug molecules provided by both major pharma and biotech companies. With two locations in the UK and one in the USA, Xceleron is a GLP accredited organization with unique expertise in its field of ultrasensitive analysis of drugs and their metabolites. Xceleron's technology has been used to assist 15 of the world's top 20 pharma companies in their drug development activities.

As many as one in three drugs fail in Phase I (healthy volunteer) clinical testing despite extensive pre-clinical screening of potential clinical candidates with a wide variety of in silico, in vitro, ex-vivo and animal models. A high proportion of these failures can be attributed to sub-optimal pharmacokinetics (PK) leading to potential efficacy or safety issues in humans.

There is general recognition by the pharma industry that more clinical information needs to be gathered earlier than currently practiced. The AMS technology enables (1) Phase I / mass balance studies to be combined (2) absolute bioavailability studies to be conducted with less animal safety testing (3) early human metabolite profiling (4) human microdosing (Phase 0 studies) as an aid in candidate selection and (5) large molecule PK studies in humans. All these approaches allow earlier entry into humans of new drug compounds and hence assist in reducing attrition rates later down the clinical development path.

For more information, visit http://www.xceleron.com.