Panasonic and Kalypsys Expand Collaboration with North American Commercialization Agreement

Panasonic Factory Solutions Co., Ltd. (PFSC), Panasonic Factory Solutions Company of America (PFSA) and Kalypsys, Inc. announced today the establishment of a Joint Commercialization Agreement to enhance sales, marketing and application support in the North American market for a next-generation High Throughput Screening (HTS) system, now under joint development. This modular HTS system enables a drastic shortening of the drug discovery development period by screening new drug candidates (compounds) at high speed with 1536-well high-density plates.

Panasonic Factory Solutions Co., Ltd. and Kalypsys, based on a Joint Development Agreement signed in September 2006, have worked to understand the current and future needs in new drug development. Together they created and are now commercializing a new automation platform that embodies a number of new technological developments to meet these needs.

As part of this agreement, PFSC and PFSA will provide sales, marketing and maintenance for the systems. Kalypsys will furnish application solutions based on its drug discovery expertise - including assay application support and customer assay evaluation. The collaboration combines the strengths of the two companies and is expected to bring new business solutions to the life science industry. Under the agreement, Kalypsys will receive royalties on product sales during the contract term.

The modular HTS system currently under development is scheduled to make its first North American appearance at the Society for Biomolecular Sciences Conference in St. Louis in April 2008.

The modular HTS system will include the following features and functions:

1. Flexible extendibility: The module size is compactly standardized and a variety of screening-related functions are included. The system is not limited to the boundaries of current screening; it has the extendibility to be easily adapted to a wide range of assay applications in the new drug development process.

2. Highly accurate assay data acquisition and improved performance reliability: The system includes reliability-enhancing technologies such as reducing edge effect (uneven evaporation of cell culture medium within plates) as well as dispense nozzle clogging prevention and an assay data management system, which regulates the system based on assay conditions (e.g. changes in plate Z prime ).

3. Pursuit of high throughput Bidirectional conveyor belt plate-handling realizes 1 min/1536-well plate throughput with high data integrity-resulting in high-speed processing.

Through their collaboration, Panasonic Factory Solutions and Kalypsys not only offer a High Throughput Screening system that resolves current issues, they also bring together the trinity of equipment, process and solutions to provide innovative drug discovery solutions..