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<p><b>PLIVA announces acquisition of MIXIS GENETICS Ltd.</b></p>
<p>Zagreb, 15th April 1999</p>
<p>PLIVA, the largest pharmaceuticals company in Central and Eastern Europe announces 
  that it has acquired 100% ownership of the company MIXIS GENETICS Ltd. ("MIXIS") 
  for US$ 3.3 million. By this transaction PLIVA becomes the owner of several 
  patents covering break-through technologies in the field of biodiversity.</p>
<p>As the access to proprietary compounds is a key factor for success in the life-sciences 
  industry, modern pharmaceuticals companies are undertaking major efforts to 
  broaden their compound pool or libraries. For small molecules this is done by 
  chemical synthesis, e.g. combinatorial chemistry, or else by parallel synthesis 
  supplementing classical medicinal synthesis efforts.</p>
<p> Existing living organisms, e.g. microbes and plants, produce a broad variety 
  of compounds already used in medicine. Therefore, biodiversity programs are 
  currently of major interest as potential generators of new compounds or "scaffolds". 
  Such scaffolds may serve as new core molecule or NCE-s (new chemical entities), 
  to be chemically modified and further developed for the pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals 
  or food markets. Geneticists have recently tried to extend this concept to genes 
  and genomes (combinatorial biology) resulting in modifications of the cellular 
  biosynthetic machinery. However, this elegant concept showed its limitations, 
  because it turned out to be difficult to mix genes and genomes from different 
  organisms, due to genetic barriers between biological species.</p>
<p>Using the proprietary patented technology of MIXIS, developed by Prof. Miroslav 
  Radman, one of the founders of MIXIS, and his co-workers, these limitations 
  have been largely resolved because the genetic barriers can be disrupted. Under 
  such conditions one can generate quasi inexhaustible new biodiversity through 
  genetic mosaicism of genes and genomes that would not occur in nature. The process 
  creating mosaic biodiversity is called inter-species recombination. Briefly, 
  MIXIS technology overcomes the normal genetic restriction in each living organism 
  that prevents the introduction of foreign or heterologous genes. Therefore, 
  it is possible to strongly enhance the spectrum of diversity once these restrictions 
  are specifically neutralised.</p>
<p>Mr. Zeljko Covic, PLIVA's CEO emphasises that: "Combined with PLIVA's current 
  efforts in the field of biotechnology and streptomyces research, the use of 
  MIXIS proprietary technology will significantly broaden PLIVA's biodiversity 
  program. Together with PLIVA's strong experience in medicinal chemistry, it 
  will ensure PLIVA's capabilities to generate a unique, proprietary compound 
  library. In addition to this, PLIVA is currently evaluating the full potential 
  of this patented technology in various life-science applications."</p>
<p>Currently, PLIVA is establishing an entirely new line of biodiversity research, 
  combining all processes necessary to run on a high throughput level generation 
  of new scaffolds and compounds, fermentation and compound identification in 
  combination with versatile high throughput screening platform applicable for 
  various therapeutic areas. </p>
1	dpavlin	1.1	<p><b>PLIVA announces acquisition of MIXIS GENETICS Ltd.</b></p>
2			<p>Zagreb, 15th April 1999</p>
3			<p>PLIVA, the largest pharmaceuticals company in Central and Eastern Europe announces
4			that it has acquired 100% ownership of the company MIXIS GENETICS Ltd. ("MIXIS")
5			for US$ 3.3 million. By this transaction PLIVA becomes the owner of several
6			patents covering break-through technologies in the field of biodiversity.</p>
7			<p>As the access to proprietary compounds is a key factor for success in the life-sciences
8			industry, modern pharmaceuticals companies are undertaking major efforts to
9			broaden their compound pool or libraries. For small molecules this is done by
10			chemical synthesis, e.g. combinatorial chemistry, or else by parallel synthesis
11			supplementing classical medicinal synthesis efforts.</p>
12			<p> Existing living organisms, e.g. microbes and plants, produce a broad variety
13			of compounds already used in medicine. Therefore, biodiversity programs are
14			currently of major interest as potential generators of new compounds or "scaffolds".
15			Such scaffolds may serve as new core molecule or NCE-s (new chemical entities),
16			to be chemically modified and further developed for the pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals
17			or food markets. Geneticists have recently tried to extend this concept to genes
18			and genomes (combinatorial biology) resulting in modifications of the cellular
19			biosynthetic machinery. However, this elegant concept showed its limitations,
20			because it turned out to be difficult to mix genes and genomes from different
21			organisms, due to genetic barriers between biological species.</p>
22			<p>Using the proprietary patented technology of MIXIS, developed by Prof. Miroslav
23			Radman, one of the founders of MIXIS, and his co-workers, these limitations
24			have been largely resolved because the genetic barriers can be disrupted. Under
25			such conditions one can generate quasi inexhaustible new biodiversity through
26			genetic mosaicism of genes and genomes that would not occur in nature. The process
27			creating mosaic biodiversity is called inter-species recombination. Briefly,
28			MIXIS technology overcomes the normal genetic restriction in each living organism
29			that prevents the introduction of foreign or heterologous genes. Therefore,
30			it is possible to strongly enhance the spectrum of diversity once these restrictions
31			are specifically neutralised.</p>
32			<p>Mr. Zeljko Covic, PLIVA's CEO emphasises that: "Combined with PLIVA's current
33			efforts in the field of biotechnology and streptomyces research, the use of
34			MIXIS proprietary technology will significantly broaden PLIVA's biodiversity
35			program. Together with PLIVA's strong experience in medicinal chemistry, it
36			will ensure PLIVA's capabilities to generate a unique, proprietary compound
37			library. In addition to this, PLIVA is currently evaluating the full potential
38			of this patented technology in various life-science applications."</p>
39			<p>Currently, PLIVA is establishing an entirely new line of biodiversity research,
40			combining all processes necessary to run on a high throughput level generation
41			of new scaffolds and compounds, fermentation and compound identification in
42			combination with versatile high throughput screening platform applicable for
43			various therapeutic areas. </p>