AMRI Announces Preferred Provider Agreement with BioPontis Alliance LLC

ALBANY, N.Y., Jan. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- AMRI (NASDAQ: AMRI), a global contract services organization, announced today that it has entered into a preferred provider agreement with BioPontis Alliance LLC. The agreement is aimed at supporting BioPontis' mission to bridge the gap between early-stage research and technologies being discovered and developed in academia and other research entities. AMRI will provide its services in small molecule discovery, development, and manufacturing in BioPontis' drug discovery research programs. The agreement also supports the need for proof-of-concept data that is required in the current pharmaceutical company licensing environment. The goal of BioPontis Alliance is to identify promising early stage product opportunities and utilize a preferred network of CROs and leading research companies to apply appropriate expertise to develop these opportunities enough to attract pharmaceutical company licensing partners.

BioPontis Alliance has established research alliances with a number of the nation's leading academic-research institutes, in which BioPontis searches for innovative science that has the potential to be translated into new treatments for cancer, neurology, inflammation, and infectious diseases. BioPontis Alliance currently has agreements with a consortium of leading universities and research institutions, including New York University, Columbia University, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), University of Virginia, University of Kansas, Oregon Health and Sciences University, Thomas Jefferson University and the University of Florida. In addition to partnerships aimed at identifying early technology, BioPontis has entered into preferred partnership agreements with leading pharmaceutical companies, including Janssen Biotech (wholly owned by Johnson & Johnson), Pfizer and Merck.

AMRI Chairman, President and CEO Thomas E. D'Ambra, Ph.D. said, "We are pleased to announce this agreement with BioPontis Alliance and to be a part of an innovative and creative business model. Building on the recently announced collaborations with the National Institutes of Health and others, the relationship with BioPontis Alliance is another example of AMRI's leading ability to contribute significant value in the discovery and development of the medicines of the future. Given the outreach by a number of pharmaceutical companies to the outside for innovative new approaches to treating disease, the BioPontis Alliance may fill an important need for the industry in identifying new therapeutic agents and approaches to treating unmet medical needs. We look forward to working with BioPontis Alliance and helping them successfully create value for their partners in academia and pharma, and ultimately for patients."

"We selected AMRI as our anchor CRO for small molecule discovery and CMC services due to their extensive track record over 20 years in supporting the pharmaceutical industry," said Richard A. Basile, CEO and Principal, BioPontis Alliance LLC. "It is important we bring together the best partners to support the success of our new business model. For many reasons, and after significant due diligence, AMRI was the obvious partner of choice. We look forward to working with AMRI and all of our partners in helping to advance some of the new medicines for the future."

About AMRI

Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (AMRI) is a global contract research and manufacturing organization with more than twenty years experience providing customers fully integrated drug discovery, development, and manufacturing services. AMRI supplies a broad range of services and technologies that support the discovery and development of pharmaceutical products and the manufacturing of API and drug product for existing and experimental new drugs. With locations in the United States, Europe, and Asia, AMRI maintains geographic proximity and flexible cost models. AMRI has also historically leveraged its drug-discovery expertise to execute on several internal drug discovery programs, which have progressed to the development candidate stage and in some cases into Phase I clinical development. AMRI has successfully partnered certain programs and is actively seeking to out-license its remaining programs to strategic partners for further development.

About BioPontis Alliance LLC

BioPontis Alliance, LLC (BPA) is an asset-based investment capital fund combined with a research and development company   created with established economic and scientific alliances with leading research universities and other institutions that collectively comprise the BioPontis University Alliance (the "University Alliance"). BioPontis Alliance is designed to facilitate efficient access to early-stage innovation by the medical industry, and to manage investment funds that identify, invest in, and develop a portfolio of technologies accessed by BPA through the University Alliance.

SOURCE AMRI