RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., U.S.A. (August 24, 2004)

  Qualyst, Inc. announced today the issuance of United States Patent No. 6,780,580 on B-CLEAR™, its flagship product line. B-CLEAR™ is a proprietary in vitro sandwich-cultured hepatocyte system for the assessment of hepatobiliary disposition. B-CLEAR™ was exclusively licensed from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is the industry’s first and only in vitro model for hepatic uptake, excretion and biliary clearance that correlates with in vivo data.

  “The issuance of this patent is further proof that B-CLEAR™ is a first-in-class technology,” said Scott Neuville, Qualyst’s president and CEO. “We provide our partners with critical help in profiling compounds for biliary excretion and clearance earlier in the development cycle than previously possible. B-CLEAR™ also offers pharmaceutical organizations the ability to investigate the role of specific transporters in the hepatobiliary disposition of a compound and assess the drug-drug interaction potential later in development.”

  Dr. Kim Brouwer, a Qualyst founder and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, currently a professor at the UNC School of Pharmacy, said, “My laboratory has been working in the area of hepatobiliary disposition for over 15 years. We were the first to show that culturing hepatocytes in a sandwich configuration was key to obtaining in vitro biliary clearance data that correlated with in vivo data. Qualyst enables the use of the B-CLEAR™ system by the drug discovery and development community at-large.”

  Drug compounds and their metabolites can be profiled using B-CLEAR™ to determine the extent of biliary excretion. The B-CLEAR™ system determines the in vitro biliary excretion index and the in vitro biliary clearance to predict the in vivo biliary clearance. B-CLEAR™ can be used at any point in the drug development cycle, and its use in pre-clinical lead optimization can significantly reduce expenditures compared to testing in whole animal models. Furthermore, B-CLEAR™ provides additional information not attainable from animal studies, including determination of the rate limiting steps in hepatobiliary disposition (uptake or efflux), and the role of specific drug transporters in the hepatobiliary disposition of the compound.

About Qualyst, Inc.
Qualyst commercializes novel and proprietary ADMET products for drug discovery and development. Qualystís products allow pharmaceutical and biotechnology researchers to make faster, better decisions regarding drug candidate compounds, saving valuable time and research dollars in the process. Qualyst, Inc. was founded on discoveries from breakthrough research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001. For additional information, please refer to the company's web site at www.Qualyst.com or call 919-313-6500.

CONTACT:

Ian J. Mehr
Vice President, Business Development
Qualyst, Inc.
919-313-6507
info[AT]qualyst[DOT]com
www.Qualyst.com