GNSC Genaissance Pharmaceuticals (MM)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. and TOKYO, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNSC) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Sankyo, Co., Ltd. (TSE:4501), under which the companies will apply Genaissance's HAP(TM) Technology in conjunction with the focused therapeutic areas of Sankyo. The goal of the collaboration is to discover genetic markers related to drug response and then validate these genetic markers and create a companion diagnostic test that will guide therapy. Under the terms of the agreement, Genaissance will receive license and other fees from Sankyo, including fees for genotyping clinical samples and analyzing the genetic and clinical data. In addition, Genaissance has certain rights for the co-development and co-commercialization of a companion genetic test. "We are very pleased that Sankyo chose Genaissance to help them integrate pharmacogenomics into drug development," said Kevin Rakin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Genaissance Pharmaceuticals. "This is our second agreement with a major Japanese pharmaceutical company and we hope to see more such agreements with Japanese companies in the future. We believe this agreement is an indication that pharmaceutical companies all over the world are now beginning to use pharmacogenomics as a tool to improve the success rate of clinical trials and bring innovative drugs to the market." "We believe that pharmacogenomics offers a way to develop safer and more effective medicines," said Dr. Kazuhiko Tanzawa, Executive Officer and Director of R&D Strategy Department at Sankyo. "This collaboration provides an excellent opportunity for us to incorporate this technology into drug development at Sankyo." Patcore, Inc., Genaissance's representative in Japan, assisted Genaissance in obtaining the contract. About Sankyo Sankyo Co., Ltd. Of Tokyo, one of Japan's largest pharmaceutical companies, has a long history of discovering new classes of drugs, including the statin class of lipid-lowering drugs. Beginning with its discovery of the first statin, mevastatin, and the co-discovery of lovastatin, the first statin to be marketed, Sankyo has been a pioneer in the cardiovascular disease area. Additionally, Sankyo discovered, developed, manufactures and markets pravastatin sodium and olmesartan medoximil, an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). For further information about Sankyo and its products, log on to http://www.sankyo.co.jp/english/. About Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is developing innovative products based on its proprietary pharmacogenomic technology and has a revenue-generating business in DNA and pharmacogenomic products and services. Genaissance also markets its proprietary FAMILION(TM) Test, designed to detect mutations responsible for causing Familial Long QT and Brugada Syndromes, two causes of sudden cardiac death. The Company's product development strategy is focused on drug candidates with promising clinical profiles and finding genetic markers to identify a responsive patient population. This strategy is designed to enable Genaissance to leverage existing clinical data and, thus, reduce the costs and risks associated with traditional drug development and increase the probability of clinical success and commercialization. The Company's lead therapeutic product, vilazodone for depression, is in Phase II of development. For more information on Genaissance, visit the Company's website at: http://www.genaissance.com/. This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the expected collaboration between Genaissance and Sankyo, including the discovery of genetic markers related to drug response and the creation of companion diagnostic tests. Such statements are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially from those referred to in such statements, including, but not limited to, the extent to which the technologies under development between Genaissance and Sankyo are predictive of clinical outcomes and drug response, acceptance and adoption by the pharmaceutical industry of the technologies, the amount and timing of resources that Genaissance and Sankyo devote to their collaboration, competition from pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics companies, the strength of their intellectual property rights and those risks identified by Genaissance in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 9, 2005, the Company's Definitive Proxy Statement dated August 29, 2005, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in other filings Genaissance makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of Genaissance as of the date of this release. Genaissance disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement. DATASOURCE: Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CONTACT: Krishnan Nandabalan, Ph.D., Vice President, Corporate Development, +1-203-786-3445, , or Carol R. Reed, M.D., Vice President, Medical Affairs, +1-203-786-3617, , both of Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; or Rhonda Chiger - investors, Rx Communications, +1-917-322-2569, Web site: http://www.genaissance.com/ http://www.sankyo.co.jp/english

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