MADISON,
WI - APRIL 3, 2003 - NimbleGen Systems Inc. announced today its
appointment of GeneFrontier (Tokyo) as its exclusive distributor
in Japan. This strategic agreement aids NimbleGen in providing
customized, ultra-high density microarray products and services
with unprecedented flexibility for functional genomics research
in Japan and other Asia-Pacific markets.
"The
distribution agreement is the first step in a strategic relationship
with GeneFrontier as we grow NimbleGen's sales into the Asia-Pacific
market," said Robert Palay, Chairman of NimbleGen's Board
of Directors and CEO. Under the terms of the transaction, GeneFrontier
will provide marketing, sales and services support for NimbleGen
in Japan. The distribution agreement complements NimbleGen's current
sales efforts in the US and Europe.
GeneFrontier
is a joint venture between ITX Corporation, BML Inc. and InfoCom
Corporation. ITX, the major shareholder in GeneFrontier, also
made an equity investment in NimbleGen. GeneFrontier will provide
innovative life science services and products to the emerging
genomic drug research and development industry.
Makoto Ogasawara,
CFO of ITX and CEO of GeneFrontier, said, "ITX and GeneFrontier
see enormous potential in the genomic drug R&D market, which
uses genomic data to identify and target disease-related gene/design
compounds and thus shorten the lengthy drug discovery process.
As an enormous amount of DNA, RNA and protein information is required
for this process, it is vital for the industry to constantly find
the innovative technology to utilize these data, and we believe
NimbleGen technology to be a perfect fit to achieving our goals
in this market."
About
NimbleGen Systems Inc.
NimbleGen Systems provides customized high-density microarray
products and services with unprecedented flexibility for functional
genomics experiments. NimbleGen's technology combines photo-deposition
chemistry with digital light projection to shorten array fabrication
from months to less than three hours, and NimbleGen scientists
are aggressively developing and deploying new microarray applications
to speed discovery research. Customers benefit from extreme flexibility,
optimized array design, highly reproducible array fabrication
and statistically robust results-all with low cost and quick turnaround.
About
GeneFrontier and ITX Corporation
GeneFrontier is a newly formed subsidiary of ITX Corporation for
the sale and distribution of innovative life science products
and services. ITX, a publicly traded investment and general trading
firm on NASDAQ Japan Market (now Nippon New Market, (Hercules)),
has $1.6 billion under management. ITX focuses investment on unique
and highly profitable target business opportunities. ITX has,
from the start, maintained a well-balanced portfolio of vested
companies at various stages of development, from the newly launched
to growing enterprises to fully matured businesses. ITX can aggressively
develop, invest in and promote new businesses as a result of the
stable profitability of mature ITX Group and affiliated companies.
ITX's target investment areas include broadband, mobile communications,
networking, semiconductors/electronics and life sciences. Being
located in Tokyo, Silicon Valley and London, ITX reaches the world's
business opportunities, with talented personnel demonstrating
a strong record of achievements.
www.itx-corp.co.jp/index_e.html
