SAN DIEGO, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Alanex Corporation and Aurora
Biosciences Corporation announced today a collaboration whereby Alanex will
provide Aurora a set of 150,000 discrete small organic compounds from its
exploratory chemical library for new lead generation in Aurora's drug
discovery screening systems.  Any successful hits identified in Aurora's
screens would be developed in a joint research collaboration.
    Alanex's compound library consists of many thousands of diverse small
molecules individually synthesized using Alanex's integrated Pharmacophore
Directed Parallel Synthesis (PDPS) platform technology.  Aurora will screen
this library of small molecules against a range of molecular and genomics
targets using its novel fluorescence assays.  Any successful lead compounds
will then be evaluated by a joint committee to establish an optimal plan for
further development.  Aurora and Alanex will share ownership rights to any
compounds discovered, and will share any revenues upon commercialization of
the compounds.
    Dr. Alex Polinsky, Alanex's Chief Scientific Officer said, "We have
screened our growing small molecule library against several targets and have
already identified promising drug candidates.  However, to realize the full
potential of our compound library we plan to screen it against a much greater
number of novel molecular targets.  This collaboration will allow us to move
forward with this plan through access to Aurora's state-of-the-art screening
technology.  Establishing partnerships with biotech companies that have
proprietary targets, and/or novel screening systems, is a major component of
Alanex's business strategy."
    Dr. Harry Stylli, Aurora's Senior Director Screen Technologies commented,
"We are building the capability for very rapidly screening tens to hundreds of
thousands of individual compounds against a wide variety of potential
therapeutic targets.  Access to high quality libraries of chemicals designed
to have `drug like' structures (or pharmacophores) is critical for quickly
finding leads with relevant activity and selectivity.  This agreement with a
leading combinatorial chemistry company is an important step in that
direction.  Furthermore, the relationship allows us to utilize Alanex's
expertise in chemical optimization and medicinal chemistry to develop
resulting leads into drug candidates."
    Alanex Corporation, based in San Diego, California, 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 combinatorial chemistry with computational chemistry, high
throughput screening and medicinal chemistry in order to accelerate the
process of going from lead generation to drug candidate in a cost effective
manner.  In December, 1994, Alanex formed a strategic collaboration with Astra
Pharma Inc., to discover and develop drugs for a novel opiod receptor.  In
April, 1996, Alanex announced the signing of a collaboration with Novo Nordisk
related to the discovery of small molecules for the treatment of diabetes.  In
July, 1996, Alanex entered into a collaboration with Roche Bioscience, a
wholly owned subsidiary of Roche Holdings, Ltd., to discover novel small
molecule drugs in the area of pain management.
    Aurora Biosciences Corporation's primary mission is to advance drug
discovery by developing miniaturized, automated systems for ultra-high-
throughput screening based on proprietary, versatile, fluorescence-based
assays.  These systems will enable very rapid screening of multiple genomic
and other molecular targets to quickly and economically identify lead
compounds with novel therapeutic potential.  To date, Aurora has raised over
$16.5 million in equity financing.  In 1996, the company announced
collaborations with Sequana Therapeutics, Inc. for functional analysis and
screening of gene targets, Packard Instrument Company to develop miniaturized
systems for ultra-high-throughput screening, and ArQule, Inc. for drug
discovery.

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