December 13, 2006
METABOLON CONTINUES EXPANDING SERVICE LINE, ADDS mVIVO™ AS ITS THIRD PACKAGED SOLUTION

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC (December 13, 2006) – Metabolon, Inc., the leader in metabolomics-driven biomarker discovery, today announced the launch of mVivo™, a service that allows researchers to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of investigational drugs during animal testing. With the introduction of mVivo, Metabolon completes their three product series of metabolomic drug safety and efficacy testing solutions, spanning the entire drug discovery and development workflow.

"mVivo provides a tool for scientists to better understand a drug’s therapeutic capability before it is tested in humans,” said John Ryals, president and CEO of Metabolon. “Since biochemical biomarkers are highly conserved between species, results from mVivo studies can be reliably used to predict a drug’s effects in humans. As part of drug discovery and development research, mVivo results will improve decisions about whether a drug should be advanced to the next stage of development.”

By analyzing microgram or microliter quantities of the target samples routinely isolated for evaluation, mVivo analysis provides valuable, non-biased information about a drug’s on- and off-target effects during animal studies. This global assessment is achieved through the analysis of hundreds of biochemical metabolites which are used to identify drug-induced changes across virtually the entire spectrum of known biochemical pathways. From a single sample, mVivo analysis provides the information needed to make actionable decisions about a drug’s safety, efficacy, and positioning.

“The launch of mVivo extends Metabolon’s growing portfolio of solutions designed to improve the efficiency of drug discovery and development,” said Ryals. “Metabolon’s family of products, mSelect™, mProveClinical™, and mVivo™, now provide our customers with a unified platform to understand drug effects on biomarkers throughout in vitro, animal, and human studies.”

About Metabolon
Metabolon is the industry leader in the discovery of biomarkers through the use of metabolomics, a powerful scientific approach for the discovery and development of drugs and the early diagnosis of disease. Metabolon's patented technology dramatically impacts drug discovery and development processes by accurately measuring the spectrum of biochemical changes and mapping these changes to metabolic pathways. Metabolon's technology can identify safer compounds for development, shorten the time for drugs to get to market and identify novel biomarkers for earlier disease detection. In 2006, Metabolon was awarded a patent that broadly covers the metabolomic methods used to identify biomarkers seen in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).