Motorola Inc. Joins The SNP Consortium / First Non- Pharmaceutical Company Joins Effort to Construct Map of Genetic Diversity

Chicago (PROTEXT) - The SNP Consortium today announced thatMotorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a global leader in wirelesscommunications, semiconductors and advanced electronics systems,is joining its collaborative effort to create a public databaseof gene markers that will enhance understanding of the biologicalbasis for disease. Motorola thus becomes the first technologycompany to join 10 leading pharmaceutical companies and theWellcome Trust in the two-year, $48 million initiative toidentify and analyze genetic markers known as single nucleotidepolymorphisms, or SNPs (pronounced "snips"). "Motorola has been at the forefront of many technologies thatfundamentally changed people's lives," said Arthur Holden,chairman and CEO of The SNP Consortium. "Enlisting a provenleader like Motorola to The SNP Consortium speaks to thepractical applications that will result from SNP initiatives. Theorganization will ultimately create a powerful research tool withthe potential to change the practice of medicine." In April The SNP Consortium announced its plan to construct ahigh-density and high-quality map of SNPs -- the minute geneticvariations that occur frequently throughout human DNA. Theavailability of such a map will help medical researchers pinpointgenetic differences that predispose some but not others todisease, and underlie variability in individual response totreatment. Such knowledge will permit the development of genetic-based diagnostics and therapeutics, and lead to an era of"personalized" medicine, in which treatments will be targeted topatients' unique genetic profiles. The Consortium intends toidentify 300,000 and map at least 150,000 SNPs by April 2001. AsSNPs are mapped, they will be placed in the public domain,providing free and unrestricted access to biomedical researchersworldwide. In 1998, Motorola officially entered the genomics arena bycreating a specialized unit within the company, Motorola BioChipSystems (BCS), to develop advanced computer chips and systemscapable of rapidly performing and analyzing thousands ofbiochemical reactions. Leveraging the company's capabilities inmass manufacturing, systems integration and electronics, MotorolaBCS is developing products to link the promise of genomics intopractical solutions for disease prevention and treatment.Motorola has announced partnerships with Argonne National Labs,Clinical Micro Sensors, Genometrix, Orchid Biocomputer, PackardInstruments and Rockefeller University. "Motorola is a welcome addition to The SNP Consortium,"according to Allen Roses, MD, Vice President and WorldwideDirector, Genetics Directorate, Glaxo Wellcome. "Motorola is acompany that has applied its core competencies to lead manyindustries to realize their full potential. Technology to readthe SNP map substantially strengthens this initiative, andunderscores the evolution of high density SNP mapping to become awidely accepted research tool." The SNP map that is constructed will be used to conductassociation studies, in which SNP patterns from a targetpopulation (for example, patients afflicted with a particulardisease) are compared with SNP patterns from unaffectedpopulations to find genetic variations shared only by theaffected group. These variations may then form the basis fordevelopment of diagnostic tests as well as new therapies. However, for such an approach to become broadly applicable tothe diagnosis and treatment of disease will require thecommercialization of cost-effective technologies to screenmassive amounts of genetic information rapidly and accurately. "Motorola is excited to be a member of The SNP Consortium,"said Nicholas Naclerio, Vice President and General Manager ofMotorola BioChip Systems. "The SNP initiative will lead to thediscovery of critical information needed by medical researchersand pharmaceutical industry scientists to aid in understandingand potentially improving the treatment of disease. Motorola BCSplans to further these efforts through the development of totalsystems and technologies that will improve the capacity toanalyze genetic information and make practical the applicationsof this knowledge. Such advances ultimately will improve thequality of lives of millions." A unit of Motorola, Motorola BioChip Systems (BCS) ispioneering the development of products to link the promise ofgenomics into practical solutions. Motorola is a global leader inproviding integrated communications solutions and embeddedelectronic solutions. These include: software-enhanced wirelesstelephone, two-way radio, messaging and satellite communicationsproducts and systems, as well as networking and Internet-accessproducts, for consumers, network operators, and commercial,government and industrial customers; embedded semiconductorsolutions for customers in the consumer, networking andcomputing, transportation and wireless communications markets;and embedded electronic systems for automotive, communications,imaging, manufacturing systems, computer and consumer markets.Sales in 1998 were $29.4 billion. Visit Motorola athttp://www.motorola.com . The SNP Consortium is organized as a non-profit entity whosegoal is to create and make publicly available a high-quality SNPmap of the human genome. The Consortium's members include theWellcome Trust, Motorola BioChip Systems, and ten pharmaceuticalcompanies: AstraZeneca PLC, Bayer AG, Bristol-Myers SquibbCompany, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Glaxo Wellcome PLC, Hoechst MarionRoussel AG, Novartis, Pfizer Inc, Searle, and SmithKline BeechamPLC. Academic centers including the Whitehead Institute forBiomedical Research, Washington University School of Medicine inSt. Louis, the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Centre, Stanford HumanGenome Center, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, are involved inSNP identification and analysis. ots Original Text Service: TheSNP Consortium Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: MaryPrescott of BSMG Medical & Health Communications (USA) 312- 397-6604, or mprescot@bsmg.com, for The SNP Consortium; or MichelleHellyar of Corporate Technology Communications (USA) 312-832-9300, ext. 217, or mhellyar@ctcomm.com, for Motorola

Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug"PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to bepublished under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial serviceproviding distribution of press releases from clients, who areidentified in the text of Protext reports and who bear fullresponsibility for their contents.

PROTEXT