SAN DIEGO and PALO ALTO, Calif., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Alanex Corporation
and Roche Bioscience announced today a three-year agreement under which Alanex
will provide compounds from its exploratory libraries on a nonexclusive basis
to all five Roche global pharmaceutical research organizations.  Alanex
exploratory libraries are comprised of individual small molecules with drug-
like structures.  Alanex uses its ChemInformatics software to select compounds
from its virtual library of more than 10 billion compounds for synthesis and
incorporation into its exploratory libraries, which are then screened in
biological assays of interest.
    Under the terms of the agreement, Roche has the right to exclusively
license leads that arise from the use of the Alanex screening libraries.  In
return, Alanex receives an upfront technology access fee and annual research
support.  The agreement also provides for milestone and royalty payments to
Alanex.  Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.  Roche
Bioscience is located in Palo Alto, CA; the other four Roche research
locations that have the option to access Alanex compounds for screening are in
Basel, Switzerland; Kamakura, Japan; Nutley, New Jersey; and Welwyn, England.
In July 1996, Alanex and Roche Bioscience announced the formation of a three-
year collaboration to discover novel small molecule drugs in the area of pain.
Alanex received its first milestone payment from Roche Bioscience under the
collaboration in February.  That collaboration is not affected by the
agreement announced today.
    "This is the largest combinatorial chemistry agreement Alanex has signed
to date.  It allows us to increase dramatically the exposure of our
combinatorial libraries to a variety of interesting molecular targets,
maximizing the probability of the successful identification of leads for
further development," said Marvin R. Brown, M.D., Chairman, Chief Executive
Officer and President of Alanex.  "We are pleased to enter into this
relationship with Roche, which is one of the top pharmaceutical companies in
the industry."
    "At Roche Bioscience, we were impressed with our early success in our
existing alliance with Alanex," said Roger Whiting, Ph.D., Senior Vice
President and Head of Roche Bioscience Neurobiology Business Unit.  "We are
pleased that this agreement provides Roche Bioscience as well as the entire
global Roche research organization with the ability to use the large, diverse
Alanex libraries in our exploratory drug discovery programs."
    Alanex Corporation, based in San Diego, CA, is a privately held drug
discovery company whose mission is to identify small molecule drugs using its
proprietary drug discovery technologies.  Alanex has developed and integrated
its ChemInformatics system, with combinatorial chemistry and high throughput
screening.  This combined approach is designed to significantly shorten the
time required to find lead compounds and optimize them into viable drug
candidates.  Alanex has formed strategic collaborations with Astra Pharma
Inc., Novo Nordisk A/S, Roche Bioscience, ICOS Corporation and Aurora
Biosciences Corporation.
    Roche Bioscience is a research-based, product-focused organization
dedicated to the discovery and early clinical development of innovative
prescription drugs.  Roche Bioscience is a member of the Roche Group, which
has headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

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