Sankyo

SANKYO SIGNS AS SUBSCRIBER TO NUCLEAR RECEPTOR MODULE OF LIFESPAN BIOSCIENCE'S DRUGTARGET DATABASE

-- Agreement Is Sankyo's Second Subscription --

SEATTLE, WA (July 23, 2002) — LifeSpan Biosciences, Inc., a world leader in the emerging fields of molecular pathology and tissue proteomics, today announced that Sankyo Co., Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan has subscribed to the nuclear receptor (NR) module of LifeSpan's comprehensive DrugTarget Database. The NR module gives subscribers access to information on all major nuclear receptors for use in identifying and validating new gene targets for drug discovery. It is one of eight modules in LifeSpan's DrugTarget Database, which includes information on the gene families of greatest interest for drug discovery.

"We are very pleased to sign Sankyo, Japan's second largest pharmaceutical company, as a customer for the NR module of our DrugTarget Database," said Joseph P. Brown, Ph.D. president and chief executive officer of LifeSpan Biosciences. "This is the second module of the DrugTarget Database that Sankyo has licensed from LifeSpan, demonstrating the uniquely valuable resource these data provide to companies seeking to identify and prioritize the most promising drug discovery targets from among the thousands of candidates suggested by their genomics efforts." Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Tetsuo Takato, president of Sankyo, said, "This is a beneficial partnership for all of us. We are very pleased to be able to work with LifeSpan on these programs, because we have been impressed by the accomplishments and capabilities of LifeSpan. We wish the scientists continued success and look forward to exciting results from this important collaboration."

"NRs (Nuclear Receptors) are major drug discovery targets for Sankyo's high-priority research on lifestyle-related diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, cancer, and obesity, which hold a high place of importance in the field of genomic research in Sankyo," said Dr. Yukio Sugimura, executive managing director, general manager of the Research Institute of Sankyo. "We are actively pursuing drug discovery research on compounds that have NRs and G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) as targets. With LifeSpan's databases, we can narrow down our library of compounds to a select few for patenting and development more rapidly and precisely."

As a subscriber to both the NR module and GPCR modules of the DrugTarget Database, Sankyo researchers are able to view all information related to these two gene families from a single, integrated bioinformatics platform and to engage in proprietary gene expression studies with LifeSpan. The DrugTarget Database combines proprietary immunohistochemical data, obtained by using specific antibodies to determine protein localization in normal and diseased human tissues, with manually curated public sequence and localization data on more than 2,000 human genes from eight gene families. Each gene family is organized as a separate database module. In addition to NRs and GPCRs, additional modules of the DrugTarget Database include ion channels, protein kinases, protein phosphatases, phosphodiesterases, transporters, and proteases.

"Understanding the expression profile of nuclear receptors should enable pharmaceutical companies to develop therapeutic drugs against a variety of diseases, including cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and atherosclerosis, said Glenna C. Burmer, M.D, Ph.D., LifeSpan's executive vice president and chief scientific officer. "Our NR database provides a comprehensive knowledge base that enhances the understanding and development of these pharmacologically important molecules."

Nuclear receptors regulate the activity of genes involved in multiple biological functions including homeostasis, cell differentiation and development. Scientists have proposed seven subfamilies of nuclear receptors, including receptors for steroid, thyroid and retinoid hormones and receptors that bind products of lipid metabolism, as well as receptors whose ligands have not yet been identified (orphan receptors). Nuclear receptors have been implicated in a variety of diseases including cancer, diabetes, certain metabolic storage diseases, acute promyelocytic leukemia, retinitis pigmentosa, rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis. Tamoxifen, an estrogen receptor alpha antagonist used to treat breast cancer, is a well-known example of an approved drug that targets a nuclear receptor.

GPCRs are 7-transmembrane receptor proteins that play a major role in the signal transduction within the cells. Since many marketed therapeutics are known to act on GPCRs, novel GPCR-based drugs are expected to have useful physiological effects and so are being targeted by many pharmaceutical industries.

About the LifeSpan DrugTarget Database
The detailed protein expression and localization information included in LifeSpan's DrugTarget Database includes thousands of high-resolution digital images of tissue specimens compiled in an easy-to-search, relational format. Each photomicrograph of immunostained samples (from the industry's largest bank of diseased and normal tissue specimens) is accompanied by written analysis from a Board-Certified Pathologist. In addition, curated public data in the database includes information on protein and nucleic acid sequences, expressed sequence tags, clones, publications and patents. LifeSpan's data analysts extract key information regarding tissue and cell-specific expression, disease associations, functional associations and analytical methods. Links to other data resources are provided. Information for each gene is summarized on a single page, providing fast, easy access and viewing over a secure Internet connection using a simple web browser interface.

About Sankyo
Sankyo Co., Ltd., is Japan's second largest pharmaceutical company with annual worldwide sales of $4.5 billion and over 11,000 employees. Sankyo has a long history of discovering new classes of drugs, including the statin class of lipid lowering drugs with its discovery of the first statin, mevastatin. Additionally, Sankyo discovered, co-developed and manufactures pravastatin. Sankyo independently markets pravastatin throughout the world and through its licensee, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Pravastatin is marketed as Pravachol® in the United States. Furthermore, Sankyo developed and launched the first glitazone, which revolutionized long-term control of type 2 diabetes. Sankyo is continuously working toward new discoveries especially in the fields of cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity, bones and joints, immune system related disorders and allergies. Detailed information about Sankyo is available at www.sankyo.co.jp.

About LifeSpan Biosciences
LifeSpan Biosciences, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, is a privately held genomics company founded in 1995 that uses proprietary molecular pathology and bioinformatics technology to profile and localize gene expression in normal and diseased human tissues. More than 50 pharmaceutical company customers in Europe, Asia and North America have purchased LifeSpan services and databases. LifeSpan is currently applying its technology and expertise to the production of a comprehensive atlas covering the expression of each of the more than 30,000 human genes in both normal and diseased tissues. For more information on LifeSpan Biosciences, please visit the company web site at www.lifespanbiosciences.com.