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October 13, 2008

BioTrove Announces Agreement with BD to Boost Drug Discovery Research Efficiency

Exclusive Agreement Enables High-Throughput Mass Spectrometric Analysis for in vitro ADME Assays, Providing Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Quality Data in a Fraction of the Time

Use of the Same Assay in Discovery and Development Eliminates Validation Steps

Woburn, MA, October 13, 2008 -- BioTrove, Inc. today announced an exclusive alliance with BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) to provide customers with a complete solution for sample preparation and data analysis of high-throughput in vitro ADME assays.

BD CYP450 Inhibition Screening Service with RapidFire Technology is a first-of-its-kind service that combines BD’s expertise in the field of ADME, sales force and customer support team, with technology leader BioTrove’s high-throughput mass spectrometry technology. The new service enables customers to use the same assay in discovery and development, eliminating the need to validate and compare multiple assay systems. Initial applications will focus on Cytochrome P450 inhibition assays -- used to assess potential drug-drug interaction liabilities -- performed with mass spectrometric detection using drug probes described in the draft U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance.

Under the new agreement, BD and BioTrove will provide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a complete solution to assess the ADME properties of large numbers of test compounds in a cost-effective manner. BD will offer BioTrove’s RapidFire mass spectrometry-based screening and analysis system as a new service for novel compound investigation. The high-quality data analysis incorporates FDA-suggested probes analyzed individually and full IC50 curves, rather than single concentration inhibition data.

"We’re committed to improving the process of drug discovery for biopharma clients of all sizes -- including those who may not have the infrastructure or resources to generate their own samples for analysis," said Can (Jon) Özbal, Vice President and General Manager of BioTrove’s RapidFire Business Unit. "Now, by combining BD’s world-class expertise in ADME applications with BioTrove’s unique mass-spectrometry technology, we’ve created a new solution that allows customers to simply supply the investigational drug, and we’ll provide the high quality analysis and rapid seven-business-day turnaround."

Using high-throughput mass spectrometry to screen test compounds across a wide range of discovery and in vitro ADME applications, the RapidFire system enables researchers to gain a more complete understanding of the biochemical properties of potential lead compounds, including potential liabilities in drug-drug interactions. Uncovering these potential complications during the earliest stages of discovery permits researchers to select only the most promising candidates for further development, thus saving time and money by focusing their resources on the compounds most likely to succeed.

"BioTrove continues to remove bottlenecks from the drug discovery process, helping customers to eliminate unsuccessful compounds -- with LC-MS quality data, in a fraction of the time -- before investing unnecessary resources in their investigation," said Albert A. Luderer, Ph.D., President and CEO, BioTrove. "Partnering with BD is our latest exciting step toward advancing the science behind meeting public health needs."

About BIOCIUS Life Sciences
BIOCIUS Life Sciences provides researchers faster answers to their lead discovery and in vitro ADME analyses through its RapidFire instrument and contract research services. RapidFire® enables the acceleration of drug discovery and pipeline decisions.  With 13 of the top 15 largest biopharmaceutical companies based on global sales as clients, and partnerships with prestigious research and public health centers around the world, BIOCIUS’s products and services ensure that an industry committed to accuracy and speed can meet business goals.

RapidFire® Mass Spectrometry (RF-MS) feeds samples directly to the mass spectrometer at six to eight seconds per sample, eliminating the bottleneck created by traditional mass spectrometry throughput. RF-MS is routinely used in many applications including the high-throughput screening of previously intractable drug targets and ADME assays.

BIOCIUS. Faster Answers.

RapidFire® technology is described in patent numbers 6,932,939, 6,812,030 7,100,460, 7,588,725,