- LION makes Equity Investment in Tripos -

    HEIDELBERG, Germany, and ST. LOUIS, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- LION Bioscience
AG and Tripos, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRPS) today announced that they have formalized a
strategic alliance which has grown out of 18 months of unannounced
collaborative efforts.  Under the alliance the two companies are integrating
LION's bioinformatics with Tripos' cheminformatics expertise, pioneering the
development of a unified platform for managing the many diverse information
systems in Life Sciences.  As part of the extension agreement, LION has made
an equity investment in Tripos on terms that Tripos will disclose separately.
    The first product being jointly developed under the alliance is "GenChem,"
a powerful software tool that aids in integrating and processing genetic,
molecular, cellular, tissue, high throughput screening and chemical data, on
one single IT-platform.
    "The alliance is a consequent extension of LION's existing data
integration capabilities and is a strategic cornerstone in the continued
growth of our i-biology(TM) approach to address the whole commercial R&D
cycle," said Dr. Friedrich von Bohlen, LION's CEO.  "Tripos' well-known
expertise in the cheminformatics sector is an ideal complement to LION's core
strengths in bioinformatics and data integration systems."
    The intention of this alliance is to offer a comprehensive and complete
software system that spans the entire cost and research intensive part of drug
discovery, from gene to optimized lead.  Building such a unified IT-platform
for biological and chemical data analysis, LION and Tripos jointly pioneer to
set the standard in Life Science Informatics, and to accelerate their
customers' and partners' pharmaceuticals, agricultural and biotech R&D
efforts.
    "This alliance enables a powerful combination of science and informatics
expertise to be focussed on today's eminent problems in life science
research," said Dr. John P. McAlister, President and CEO of Tripos.  "Tripos
and LION bring complementary skills to the development of a unified process of
information-driven research in the life sciences uniting cheminformatics, data
analysis, bioinformatics and data systems integration for the global
enterprise."
    Biological and medical data obtained through applied genomics technologies
are integrated and interpreted using bioinformatics, with the goal of
identifying genetically-based targets or phenotype/genotype correlations.
Through the integration with cheminformatics to form integral Life Science
Informatics, this information can immediately be translated into lead
compounds to accelerate the development of products. Furthermore, through
integration of toxicological and ADME-data, this Life Science Information-
system becomes a powerful decision support tool to measurably improve the
quality and quantity of discovery outputs, accelerating the discovery process
while reducing its complexity at the same time. By these means, tremendous
value will be generated for partners and customers of this integrated Life
Science Informatics solution.

    About LION Bioscience AG:
    LION Bioscience AG (http://www.lionbioscience.com) is a leading genomics
and information technology company, pioneering the field of i-biology(TM) for
expediting Life Science research.  Founded in 1997, the company has more than
190 employees, with headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, and subsidiaries in
Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, Mass. The company leverages its core competencies
in information technologies and genomics to accelerate and improve the drug
discovery and Life Science research efforts of its partners throughout the
pharmaceutical, agricultural and biotechnology industry.
    To date, LION AG has established numerous alliances in informatics and
genomics with leading Life Science research companies, including Aventis,
Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, DEGUSSA and Pharmacia & Upjohn.

    About Tripos, Inc.:
    Tripos (http://www.tripos.com) is a leading provider of discovery research
software and services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other life sciences
companies worldwide.  The company is dedicated to optimizing and accelerating
the discovery of new products in the pharmaceutical and related industries.
Tripos offers "chemically intelligent" discovery software tools to manage,
analyze and share biological and chemical information; systems integration
services; diverse chemical libraries; and contract research for the discovery,
synthesis and characterization of new chemical compounds that are active in
biological systems.
    Tripos has an established customer base which includes all of the
pharmaceutical, science and major biotechnololgy companies throughout the
world.  Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Tripos has sales offices on the East
and West coasts of the USA and operating subsidiaries in Milton Keynes and
Bude, UK; Paris, France; and Munich, Germany.

    Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set
forth in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995.  These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and
uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially.  For a
discussion of factors that may cause results to differ, see Tripos' SEC
reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10K.

    Contact:  Dr. Claus Kremoser of LION Bioscience, +49-6221-4038-133,
claus.kremoser@lionbioscience.com; Colleen Martin of Tripos, Inc.,
314-647-1099, cmartin@tripos.com; or Ernie Knewitz of Noonan/Russo
Communications, +44-20 7726-4452, ernie.knewitz@noonanrusso.com, for LION
Bioscience.

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