Bicoll as Partner of a €2.7 M European-Funded EuroTransBio Program

Munich, Germany – May 11th, 2011 – BICOLL GmbH, a biopharmaceutical drug discovery company specializing in high-tech natural product chemistry and medicinal chemistry to identify novel small molecules for drug discovery and related innovative fields, will be responsible for roughly 1 Million Euro of the project volume. As part of the EuroTransBio initiative, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF, has given green light for BICOLL’s contribution to the research program OLNORME II. BMBF is likewise covering a substantial part of the costs for this Discovery Program. The joint project of BICOLL together with Genfit, a biopharmaceutical company at the forefront of drug discovery and development, focusing on the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of cardio metabolic and associated disorders, follows on the positive results obtained during the initial OLNORME (Occurrence of novel Ligands for a Nuclear Orphan Receptor in plant Metabolites) program. Initiated in 2007, BICOLL and Genfit were able to identify active and confirmed hits for a class of new drugs for an orphan nuclear receptor with anti-inflammatory properties within this framework.

“The successful identification and structure elucidation of active ligands to a previously orphan receptor within the initial OLNORME collaboration with Genfit was based on the screening of ProfilesTM from BICOLL’s highly diversified library of plant metabolites.”, declared Dr. Kai Lamottke, Managing Director of BICOLL. “With our expertise in natural product chemistry and medicinal chemistry, we were able to contribute significantly to our partner’s progress in internal research programs.”

In the successive OLNORME II program the consortium will now develop new drug development candidates with great potential to treat cardio metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases including atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer disease. BICOLL will contribute with its expertise in medicinal chemistry to the hit to lead optimization phase. BICOLL will as well evaluate structural and functional diversity of hit compound families and additionally support Genfit during lead compound characterization and preclinical development. As third partner for the European joint research project OLNORME II, University of Freiburg, research group of Professor Dr. Peter Spiteller was selected as academic partner.

About BICOLL:

BICOLL is a biopharmaceutical company, offering pre-clinical support in the area of Drug Discovery from Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry. Dedicated to the discovery and optimization of the highest quality lead compounds, BICOLL provides an efficient, multi-disciplinary approach to drug discovery. With outstanding expertise in high tech natural product chemistry and validated experience in medicinal chemistry, BICOLL increases quality and quantity of the drug discovery pipeline of its partner's candidates portfolio.

The BICOLL Group provides its services to a number of international clients of various fields of interest, e.g. pharmaceutical and agrochemical industry. The BICOLL Group comprises two legal entities: BICOLL GmbH in Munich, Germany and BICOLL Biotechnology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., P.R. China. Technology development, cooperation management and marketing are functions in Munich, while facilities for research and development are located in Shanghai. BICOLL currently employs 40 people at both locations.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Nicole Feling

Public Relations Management

Tel: +49 (0) 89 / 82010630,

nicole.feling@bicoll-group.com