GeneBio Announces Major Distribution Agreement For Phenyx in Japan (In Japanese)

Geneva, Switzerland and Tokyo, Japan - November 24, 2004 - Geneva Bioinformatics (GeneBio) S.A. today announced a distribution agreement with the Bioinformatics Institute for Global Good (BiGG), a research institute located in Tokyo with both business and academic resources and founded by Professor Takashi Gojobori, a principal figure in the Japanese proteomics and bioinformatics landscape. This partnership combines Phenyx, GeneBio's protein identification software platform, with BiGG's unique position in the Japanese market in order to bring pertinent and massive product coverage to this fast growing proteomics marketplace. Under the terms of the agreement, BiGG, through its existing business relationships with Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. and Netwell Corporation, will establish an extensive distribution campaign for Phenyx in Japan in coordination with GeneBio's Japanese branch. This collaboration allows GeneBio to leverage the expertise, reputation and sales strength of Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd., one of the leading Japanese software companies and a major player in the Japanese market, notably in the realm of Life Sciences.

This collaboration, in conjunction with the endorsement of Professor Gojobori, greatly expands the potential for Phenyx in the Japanese proteomics market. In addition, this agreement paves the way for the distribution of future GeneBio products in Japan through BiGG and its member companies, potentially strengthening the stature of both GeneBio and BiGG as bioinformatics leaders in Japan.

GeneBio's Phenyx is a software platform for the identification and characterization of proteins and peptides from mass spectrometry data. Developed by GeneBio in collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) and incorporating the true probabilistic and flexible scoring system OLAV developed at GeneProt Inc., Phenyx is specifically designed to meet the concurrent demands of high-throughput MS data analysis and dynamic high quality results assessment.

"We are very proud of the progress we have made with Phenyx in such a short time and look forward to a bright future in Japan," said Nasri Nahas, CEO of GeneBio. "This agreement with BiGG is the result of this endeavour and of the efficiency of our Japanese branch, of which I am very proud; it is a testament to the strategic importance that we place on the Japanese market in terms of future company growth. Dr. Gojobori is a renowned leader in the proteomics and bioinformatics fields in Japan whose backing for Phenyx and GeneBio's activities together with BiGG's unique academic and business network will, we believe, strengthen our chances of achieving a successful product penetration."

"We are very pleased to be working with our old friends from the Lake Geneva Region's GeneBio and the SIB on this distribution agreement and are excited to be bringing the next generation of proteomics MS data analysis software to the Japanese market," said Dr. Takashi Gojobori, founder of BiGG. "BiGG was created in order to bring together leading business and academic resources in the genomics, bioinformatics and proteomics fields and establish a high level of product excellence for the Japanese region; we believe GeneBio, in bringing the highly efficient Phenyx platform to Japanese researchers, furthers this goal and that the product will be very positively welcomed by the Japanese proteomics community."

GeneBio will be presenting and demonstrating Phenyx at the Swiss Proteomics Society 2004 Congress in Bern, Switzerland from December 6 - 8 and at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan in Kobe from December 8 - 11. For more information about Phenyx, please visit www.phenyx-ms.com.

About GeneBio
Founded in 1997, GeneBio is a multifaceted bioinformatics company situated at the heart of the Lake Geneva Region, one of the world's major proteomics centres of excellence. Based on expertise in the proteomics and bioinformatics fields, GeneBio offers original educational and knowledge-discovery solutions that help clients shape heterogeneous information into relevant biological knowledge.

About BiGG
Founded in 2002 by Professor Takashi Gojobori, a prominent figure in the Japanese bioinformatics and proteomics arena, BiGG is an organization involved in research programs on proteins and has strong links to an extensive network of academic institutions and commercial organizations conducting research in related fields, placing BiGG in a unique position that enables them to bridge the gap between the worlds of academia and business. For more information about BiGG, please visit: www.biggjapan.com.

GeneBio contact:
Mr. Andrew Smith
andrew.smith@genebio.com
Tel. +41.22.702.99.00

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