BioDuro and Roche Expand Strategic Collaboration to Provide Drug Discovery Services

BioDuro and Roche Expand Strategic Collaboration to Provide Drug Discovery
Services

BEIJING, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- BioDuro announced today that they have
entered into a strategic partnership with Roche to support discovery phase
research efforts at Roche's global research sites. BioDuro will provide
research services in the areas of discovery chemistry and biology, which can
help to shorten (internal) drug discovery timelines. This agreement is an
expansion of an existing relationship.

Roche has many years of experience in partnering with external companies to
complement its internal drug discovery expertise with external services and
innovation. After extensive evaluation of many companies, Roche selected
BioDuro as a strategic partner for this effort.

"Presently, there is intense competition within the CRO industry for
outsourcing and drug discovery services, and the expectation is that they will
deliver problem solving skills and innovation in both chemistry and biology,"
commented Robert Goodnow, Ph.D., Roche's Global Head of Medicinal Chemistry
Outsourcing. "We selected BioDuro due to their demonstrated excellent
performance in synthetic chemistry and ability to deliver integrated medicinal
chemistry services."

"BioDuro is pleased to build upon this existing collaboration and work closely
with the experienced team at Roche to aid in the development of novel
therapeutics. We care deeply about working on projects that will impact the
quality of life worldwide and working with Roche ensures this outcome. Our
partnership demonstrates the strength of our innovative, fully integrated R&D
service platform, and is a true testament to the caliber of scientists that
have joined our team," commented John Oyler, Chief Executive Officer and
co-founder of BioDuro LLC.

About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading
research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and
diagnostics. As the world's biggest biotech company and an innovator of
products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and
treatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to
improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in
in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, and is a market
leader in virology. It is also active in other major therapeutic areas such as
autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and metabolic disorders and diseases of the
central nervous system. In 2008, sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division
totalled 36.0 billion Swiss francs ($33.3B US), and the Diagnostics Division
posted sales of 9.7 billion francs ($9.0B US). Roche has R&D agreements and
strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership
interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invested nearly 9 billion Swiss francs
($8.3B US) in R&D in 2008. Worldwide, the Group employs about 80,000 people.
Additional information is available on the Internet at www.roche.com.

About BioDuro

BioDuro is a US-based, fully-integrated, end-to-end, life science, research
services company with a team of 580 in Beijing, China. BioDuro combines
western pharmaceutical company quality and professionalism, with
entrepreneurial, innovative biotech research culture, to leverage its
talented, hard-working scientists. BioDuro's clients are over 40
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including 10 of the top-12.
BioDuro's services span the entire range of drug discovery and development,
from discovery chemistry, discovery biology, early ADMET, DMPK, through
pharmacology and drug safety evaluation.

SOURCE BioDuro

Sharon Valdettaro, Roche Pharma Partnering, +41 61 688 96 55,
sharon.valdettaro@roche.com, or Roche Public Affairs, Darien E. Wilson,
+1-973-562-2232, darien_e.wilson@roche.com, both of Roche; or Ryan Brady,
Business Development, +1-317-331-3029, ryan.brady@bioduro.com, or Ling Zhang,
Public and Governmental Relations, +86 139 1077 9022, ling.zhang@bioduro.com,
both of BioDuro