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SCYNEXIS and DNDi Extend Collaboration to Identify Drug Candidates to Treat Sleeping Sickness

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, USA, and GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (Dec. 11 , 2008) -SCYNEXIS, Inc. and Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) announced today that they have extended their collaboration on vital drug discovery research and development of affordable and effective therapies for human African trypanosomiasis (also known as sleeping sickness) for an additional three years. Sleeping sickness is one of the most devastating diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.

“SCYNEXIS believes that this collaborative project approach with DNDi can play an important role in improving the discovery and development of new therapies for neglected diseases,” said SCYNEXIS President & CEO Yves Ribeill. “We are pleased with the progress this alliance has achieved to date and look forward to continuing to apply our expertise in drug discovery and development to identify new drug candidates to treat sleeping sickness.”

A fatal disease if not treated, human African trypanosomiasis threatens more than 50 million people in 36 countries. Currently, few drugs exist for the treatment of either Stage 1 or Stage 2 human African trypanosomiasis and severe toxic side effects are a common problem. The difficulty of diagnosis, stage determination and increasing numbers of treatment failures pose additional clinical challenges.

The project between SCYNEXIS and DNDi was initiated in 2006 and will now run through March of 2012. The collaboration includes partners at Pace University networked through the HEOS® software collaboration platform. The goal of this project is to progress molecules proven to be safe and active against HAT parasites in early-stage screening research through the first steps of regulatory safety assessment in the preclinical phase.

Dr. Shing Chang R&D Director of DNDi added that “the partnership of SCYNEXIS and DNDi provides a critical catalyst in the development of drugs to treat human African trypanosomiasis by mobilizing the best scientific resources to address the needs of the most neglected patients.”

About SCYNEXIS
SCYNEXIS is a premier drug discovery and development company delivering effective and innovative drug pipeline solutions to pharmaceutical and global health partners. The Company, which is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is also focused on developing a proprietary internal pipeline based on cyclophilin inhibitors, a class of drugs that hold significant potential for the treatment of a broad range of diseases. Please visit our website at www.scynexis.com.

About HEOS®

The HEOS® software suite is a comprehensive, web-based drug research information management software that supports geographically distributed scientists and facilitate collaboration.

The complex process of transforming a hit into a clinical candidate involves data generated by a broad range of sources. The success of the project relies on the capability of the partners to easily, securely and efficiently access, share and communicate the right information at the right time. HEOS® is a web portal that provides a secure and user-friendly data handling system. It allows all the involved collaborators to view results and make informed decisions.

About DNDi
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is an independent, not-for-profit product development partnership working to research and develop new and improved treatments for neglected diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and Chagas disease. With the objective to address unmet patient needs for these diseases, DNDi was established in 2003 by Institut Pasteur and Médecins Sans Frontières along with four publicly-funded research organizations in neglected disease-endemic countries. Working in partnership with industry and academia, DNDi has the largest ever R&D portfolio for the kinetoplastid diseases and currently has 6 clinical and 4 preclinical projects. DNDi delivered its first product, a fixed-dose antimalarial “ASAQ”, in partnership with sanofi-aventis in 2007. In April 2008, DNDi delivered its second product, fixed-dose “ASMQ”, with Farmanguinhos as first-line treatment for children and adults suffering from uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria cases in Latin America and Asia.
For further information, please consult www.dndi.org.

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