Locus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a computationally-based drug design and development company, announced today the continuation of its multi-stage research collaboration with Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), focused on agrochemicals and biotechnology innovation. The collaboration involves the application of Locus' proprietary computational technologies to design and develop novel small molecules to treat fungal targets identified by Dow AgroSciences. Financial and other terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. However, if the collaboration is successful, Locus will realize certain milestones and royalties and will have an exclusive option to human therapeutic applications.

"We are delighted that Dow AgroSciences will be moving to the next stage in the collaboration we entered into just over a year ago," said Jeffrey S. Wiseman, Ph.D., Vice President, Technology & Informatics at Locus. "This project has been technically challenging since we have needed to compute binding to a protein with more than 1,400 residues, which may well be the largest protein surface ever comprehensively sampled for drug binding calculations."

"We are very pleased with the progress of our collaboration with Locus and, in particular, the large increase in potency achieved in the first round of chemical designs compared to known leads," said Dr. Bill Kleschick, director of Discovery Research at Dow AgroSciences. "We look forward to moving to Stage II where we will be working with Locus to optimize these designs."

Locus' core technology is fragment-based, computational drug design which Locus has combined with highly integrated medicinal chemistry and biology capabilities.

Starting with a protein crystal structure, an in silico collection of 40,000 molecular fragments and one of the world's largest privately-owned Linux-based supercomputer clusters, Locus identifies optimum ligand binding sites on protein targets and computes the binding affinity of molecular fragments to these sites. The fragments are then assembled computationally into drug candidates with accurately predicted binding potency. Other Locus technologies model physically realistic, long-range timescales of protein motion and incorporate appropriate chemical properties. The result is a 'virtual library' of drug candidates that exceeds the size and diversity of any physical screening library by orders of magnitude. Because of the speed and accuracy with which these virtual libraries are constructed and evaluated, Locus typically needs to synthesize only hundreds of compounds to generate highly potent lead molecules.

Locus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a world leader in computational drug design. These proprietary computational approaches are combined with in-house expertise in chemistry, biology and crystallography to create a fully integrated drug discovery and development platform.

Locus' internal development programs are focused on oral drug therapies for humans that address major unmet medical needs, principally in cancer and inflammation. Locus expects to file an IND early this year for LP-261, Locus' lead oncology compound. In its inflammation program, Locus created uniquely selective p38 inhibitors that target an allosteric binding site rather than the ATP site, which may offer an improved safety profile compared to other p38 compounds under development. Earlier stage projects include a program to develop multi-kinase inhibitors, a Heat Shock Protein 90 program which is being conducted in a collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and a gp41 program for AIDS/HIV. All of the Company's development programs emanate from its computational technology. Locus is privately-held.

Dow AgroSciences LLC, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is a global leader in providing pest management and biotechnology products that improve the quality and quantity of the earth's food supply and contribute to the health and quality of life of the world's growing population. Dow AgroSciences has approximately 5,500 people in more than 50 countries dedicated to its business, and has worldwide sales of US $3.4 billion. Dow AgroSciences is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.