Press Release: Provid to Acquire Tripos Discovery Research

Provid to Acquire Tripos Discovery Research NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J., Jan. 5 -- Provid Pharmaceuticals Inc. is pleased to announce that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tripos Discovery Research (TDR), the UK-based drug discovery division of Tripos, Inc. Provid's management and scientific leadership team believes that a shared future with TDR will allow it to deliver expert medicinal chemistry and drug discovery services to the biotech, academic, and pharmaceutical communities. It is Provid's intention that the LeadQuest libraries, LeadDiscovery platform, and other product and service offerings from TDR will continue to be made available to customers, and will be continually evolved to serve newly recognized opportunities. Provid will continue to offer expert collaborative research services to the biotech, academic, and pharmaceutical community. Provid has exceptional capabilities in medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, and lead optimization, as well as protein biochemistry and assay development. Provid is also recognized as a world leader in peptide mimetics technology. "The mission of the company centers on chemistry-based drug discovery as the key to unlock the value of biological targets for Provid's customers and collaborators. Invention and design require high technology expertise and experience in the art of medicinal chemistry. These are highly developed within the expanded company," said Gary Olson, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Provid. "The combined entity will have the capability to pursue all aspects of drug discovery -- from target, to hit, to lead, to development candidate. Furthermore, the integration of the capabilities of each organization will give current customers continuity for their ongoing projects in drug design and discovery, and afford unique and exceptional tools and approaches for the future." The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2007, and is subject to numerous customary terms and conditions, including Provid securing acquisition financing. Further details are outlined in Tripos' press release, which can be found at http://www.tripos.com/. Additional information on the companies is available at http://www.providpharma.com/ and http://www.triposdiscoveryresearch.com/. For more information visit: http://www.providpharma.com/.