BioImage A/S Raises $17 million in Initial Financing /

Former Novo Nordisk Research Unit Begins Operations asIndependent Company COPENHAGEN, Denmark (PROTEXT) - BioImage A/S, a former NovoNordisk A/S research unit, announced today that it has begunoperations as an independent company. The Company recentlycompleted a $17 million initial venture round led by fundsadvised by Apax Partners, a leading international private equityfirm. BioImage discovers novel pharmaceutical compounds and drugtargets through the use of proprietary cell-based imagingtechnologies that track redistribution events in intracellularsignaling pathways. The Company will commercialize pharmaceuticaldrug candidates generated by its internal drug discovery programsthrough sales and marketing collaborations with largepharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Novo Nordisk andBioImage have an ongoing research collaboration in the field ofdiabetes and Novo Nordisk retains a minority equity stake in theCompany. "BioImage is the first company to discover new pharmaceuticalsthat modulate intracellular redistribution events using real-timevisualization of signaling," stated Thomas Geimer, Apax Partners."We believe BioImage will be able to identify valuable newintracellular targets and families of novel drug candidates." "While Novo Nordisk needs to access a broad array ofstate-of-the art drug discovery technologies, our tightcommercial focus means we are unable to fully exploit many drugdiscovery tools." said Bruce Carter, Chief Scientific Officer atNovo Nordisk. "By establishing BioImage as an independentcompany, we are able to fully realize the commercial potential ofthe Company's proprietary discovery technology while retainingrights to use these valuable tools in diabetes. We welcome thefounding of a significant new biotechnology company in Denmark." Ole Thastrup, BioImage's Chief Technology Officer noted, "Thescientific community has confirmed that redistribution withinintracellular signaling pathways plays an essential role incontrolling cellular functions. We have established a strongproprietary position covering the use of intracellularredistribution in drug discovery and plan to exploit thistechnology in a variety of specific disease-related targets." The pharmaceutical industry now recognizes that intracellularsignaling pathways constitute highly attractive targets for drugdevelopment within many major disease areas. BioImage's drugdiscovery strategy exploits the novel finding that highlyspecific movements of individual signaling components areessential for determining the tissue specificity of intracellularsignaling. This finding has opened a wealth of new drug targetopportunities that the Company can exploit with its direct,real-time visualization technologies applied in living cells.BioImage has established a strong proprietary position thatincludes 13 patents and patent applications covering fluorescentprotein-based molecular probes, imaging screening technologiesand specific intracellular targets. BioImage was established in 1994 as a research unit withinNovo Nordisk A/S in order to provide sophisticated cell-basedassays for internal drug discovery programs. The Company hasalready demonstrated success in profiling interactions betweendrug candidates and intracellular targets, and has dramaticallyshortened the time required for early-stage screening "hits" toreach lead candidate designation. The Company will use theproceeds of this venture round to further automate its assaytechnologies and to establish several internal drug discoveryprograms. In order to support its near-term development programs,the Company plans to double its research staff over the nexttwelve to eighteen months. BioImage discovers novel pharmaceutical compounds and drugtargets through the use of proprietary cell-based imagingtechnologies that track redistribution events in intracellularsignaling pathways. The Company will commercialize pharmaceuticaldrug candidates generated by its internal drug discovery programsthrough sales and marketing collaborations with largepharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. BioImage is the firstcompany to discover new pharmaceuticals that modulateintracellular redistribution events using real-time visualizationof signaling. The Company was established as a research unitwithin Novo Nordisk A/S in 1994 and became independent in 1999.Major investors and shareholders are venture funds advised byApax Partners, Novo Nordisk A/S, The Danish Growth Fund(Vaktfonden), and KfW-BMBF- Beteiligungsprogramm fund. Forfurther company information, visit BioImage A/S on the World WideWeb at http://www.bioimage.dk. Apax Partners, a leading international private equityinvestment group, pursues a balanced equity portfolio strategyinvesting in companies at all stages of development, fromstart-up to buy-out. Apax Partners focuses primarily on fiveindustry sectors: Information Technology, Retail & ConsumerProducts, Telecommunications, Healthcare and Media. Apax Partnershas a team of 100 private equity professionals in twelve officesacross Europe, the USA (operating as Patricof & Co.), Japan(operating as Apax Globis Partners) and Israel (operating asApax-Leumi Partners). Seventy of these professionals are based inEurope. Founded independently in the USA in 1969 and in Europe in1972, the Firm came together in 1997. Apax Partners now managesover $5 billion on behalf of leading institutional investorsaround the world. Investments in the Healthcare sector includeAgouron, Biocompatibles, Centocor, Chiroscience, LexiconGenetics, PPL Therapeutics, Rademacher Group, RiboTargets,Scotia, Shield Diagnostics and Wilex. For further companyinformation, please visit Apax Partners on the World Wide Web athttp://www.apax.com. Novo Nordisk A/S is the world leader in insulin and diabetescare and also manufactures and markets a variety of otherpharmaceutical products. Furthermore, the company is the world'slargest producer of industrial enzymes. Headquartered in Denmark,Novo Nordisk employs approximately 15,000 people in 61 countriesand markets its products in 179 countries. Its B shares arelisted on the stock exchanges in Copenhagen, London and Zurich.Its ADSs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under thesymbol "NVO." For further company information, visit Novo Nordiskon the World Wide Web at http://www.novo.dk or in the US athttp://www.novo-nordisk.com. ots Original Text Service: BioImageA/S Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Ole Thastrup orUlrik Vejlsgaard of BioImage, Copenhagen, Denmark, (+45)44-42-64-30 or Soren M. Christensen of Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen,Denmark, (+45) 44-42-12 07 or Mark King or Kirtland Poss ofFeinstein Kean Partners, 617-577-8110 or Tom Geimer or KarenHitschke of Apax Partners & Co., Munich, Germany, (+49)89-99-89-09 0 Web site: http://www.novo-nordisk.com

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