Symyx Technologies, Inc. Expands Biologics Advisory Board

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - April 21, 2009) - Over the next five years, the market for biologically based drugs, or biologics, is expected to grow much faster than the market for traditional small molecule-derived drugs. Biologics represent an increasing proportion of pharmaceutical company pipelines, often serving as the first line of defense against challenging immune system diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Growing investments in biologics present the industry and regulatory agencies with challenges in discovery, development, manufacturing, oversight, and approval of these entities.

Moving to improve informatics support in this fast growing area of research, Symyx Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMMX) today announced that it is extending an invitation to life scientists in industry and academia to join an expanded Biologics Advisory Board. The purpose of the Board is to encourage dialogue on core informatics strategies, technologies, and priorities supporting biologics workflows -- including new Web browser technology for biologics registration and integration of biologics registration capabilities into the enterprise Symyx Notebook ELN.

"Symyx is actively engaged in developing core technology supporting the capture and reuse of biologics information to accelerate R&D, and this technology is in place today at customer sites," said Dr. Trevor Heritage, president of Symyx Software. "The Biologics Advisory Board offers an excellent opportunity for individuals and organizations at the forefront of today's biologics expansion to drive the delivery of effective, off-the-shelf biologics solutions built on Symyx technology. I encourage researchers with biologics expertise to join us in this important initiative. The next meeting of the Board will be at the Symyx Symposium in Philadelphia this May."

"Life Technologies is pleased to join the Biologics Advisory Board organized by Symyx," said Dr. Bruce Branchaud, global chemistry leader for Life Technologies. "Life Technologies shares mutual customers with Symyx and has already initiated a chemical registration pilot built on Symyx technology which we would benefit from if extended to support our biologics. As a provider of biologics to life sciences companies, Life Technologies considers the Board a great opportunity to advise Symyx on how best to extend their current biologics technology to support the end-to-end acquisition, internal registration, and management of biologics by our mutual customers."

Symyx has provided large-structure support for biopharmaceutical researchers since 1996. Today the Symyx Direct data cartridge, combined with the Symyx Draw chemical and biologics drawing tool, supports the storage and retrieval of sequences including peptides, oligonucleotides, and oligosaccharides. Symyx Draw software enables researchers to draw, register, and search on chemically modified 1- and 3-letter peptide, nucleotide, DNA, and RNA sequences. Symyx Draw also converts FastA, Swiss-Prot, PDB, and EMBL files into chemically significant sequences. The Symyx Registration service provides capabilities for uniquely classifying biologics as a function of their underlying components (including the appropriate representation) and properties. Genealogy and tracking of the sample are provided, enabling organizations to track entities such as plasmids, cell lines, and antibodies, all in one interface. The recently released Symyx Notebook 6.2 for synthesis chemists adds chemical registration capabilities to the enterprise electronic lab notebook, and the next step will be the addition of biologics registration.

The next meeting of the Biologics Advisory Board is scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2009 at the Symyx Software Symposium in Philadelphia. For information on the Symposium: www.symyxsymposium.com. For more information on the Biologics Advisory Board or to apply for membership, please contact keith.taylor@symyx.com.

About Symyx

Symyx Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMMX) enables companies in life sciences, chemicals and energy, and consumer and industrial products to transform scientific R&D and achieve extraordinary breakthroughs in productivity and return on investment. Symyx scientific information management enables scientists to design, execute, analyze, and report experimental results faster, easier, and less expensively. Symyx microscale, parallel experimentation enables a single scientist to rapidly explore a broad experimental space and develop comprehensive data sets in days -- not weeks or months. Symyx contract research delivers these advantages on a project basis and enables companies to increase R&D productivity, agility, and flexibility. Information about Symyx, including reports and other information filed by Symyx with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is available at www.symyx.com.

Symyx is a registered trademark of Symyx Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.