MDS Pharma Services Announces Collaboration with Compendia Bioscience

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA, April 28, 2009 – MDS Pharma Services, a leading provider of innovative drug discovery and development solutions, has formed a strategic collaboration with Compendia Bioscience, Inc. to deliver a novel solution, OncoPredictorSM, to improve the development of drugs to treat cancer.  

OncoPredictor combines MDS Pharma Services’ OncoPanel with Compendia Bioscience’s Oncomine™ for a solution that will help identify cancer patient populations most likely to respond to a new or existing cancer therapy. As a result, research is more efficient and therapies can be targeted to those most likely to benefit.

“MDS Pharma Services is pleased to collaborate with Compendia Bioscience to develop OncoPredictorSM, a solution that will help clients developing cancer treatments to do so more quickly and effectively,” said MDS Pharma Services President David Spaight.  “Our pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients seek to determine the efficacy of their compounds across cancer genotypes and patient phenotypes. OncoPredictorSM will help provide the answer with technology for information-based lead selection, predictive in vivo study design and biomarker development.”

OncoPanel offers high-content screening of up to 240 cancer cell lines for sensitivity to specific cancer drugs and drug combinations. Compendia’s Oncomine, a database of cancer genomic profiles coupled with a Web-enabled analysis application, provides genomic characterization and comparison of cancer cell lines to 2,000 disease signatures from more than 27,000 reference patients based on molecular, pathological and histological sub-types.  The OncoPredictorSM system will analyze drug sensitivity and resistance of novel drugs and drug combinations to identify associations with both disease sub-types and underlying tumor biology.

“Based on our experience working with the top companies pursuing development of cancer treatments, we believe this integrated solution could revolutionize cancer genomics for drug development,” said Compendia CEO and Co-founder Dan Rhodes, Ph.D. “MDS Pharma Services clearly provides unique experience and capabilities, and we do not believe we could have identified a better partner to co-develop this solution.”

MDS Pharma Services is the only contract research organization with firsthand experience of delivering high-quality cellular data on such a large scale using the exact growth and culture conditions from which the genomic data in Oncomine™ was generated.  Clients rely on MDS Pharma Services for this large-scale screening because of its proven experience in developing reliable cell line culture and growth conditions, providing consistent data for the integration of genomic and functional information.

“Compendia Bioscience is a leader in the field of cancer genomics,” Mr. Spaight added. “Its Oncomine™ is a standard platform in the industry, and we believe our joint solution-OncoPredictorSM-will also become a cost-affordable industry standard in oncology drug development for both large and small companies.”

MDS Pharma Services Pharmacology/DMPK division offers  biochemical, cellular/functional, ADME/DMPK and in vivo assays for use in identifying lead compounds, profiling for selectivity, determining the potential for adverse events, evaluating efficacy and establishing proof of concept. To help speed lead optimization earlier in the discovery phase and streamline the surest path to clinic, the team offers extensive capabilities in molecular and cellular pharmacology, including more than 800 assays, multiple assay methodologies, high-throughput screening with robotic automation, and expert assay development. To view the extensive catalog of discovery assays, visit the MDS Pharma Services’ Pharmacology/DMPK Website at http://discovery.mdsps.com/Catalog/.

About Compendia Bioscience’s Oncomine
Oncomine™ combines a rapidly growing compendium of more than 30,000 expertly curated cancer genomic profiles with a sophisticated analysis engine and a powerful Web application for data mining and visualization. Oncomine™ facilitates target discovery and validation and supports the prioritization of tumor populations for drug development. To learn more, go to http://www.compendiabio.com/products/products.htm

About Compendia Bioscience, Inc.
Compendia Bioscience is dedicated to harnessing the global collection of high-throughput molecular data to provide researchers with the data and analysis tools necessary to validate biomarker and gene target discoveries, better understand mechanisms of disease, and optimize clinical outcomes. For more information, go to www.compendiabio.com.

About MDS Pharma Services’ OncoPanel
MDS Pharma Services’ Oncopanel™ offers high-throughput cellular drug profiling, relying on deep experience in cell culture and high-content imaging to systematically screen compounds across hundreds of cancer cell lines simultaneously.

About MDS Pharma Services
MDS Pharma Services, a business unit of MDS Inc., is committed to delivering quality service on time. We offer a full spectrum of resources to meet the drug discovery and development needs of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. With numerous facilities strategically located around the world, we apply advanced scientific and technological expertise throughout the drug discovery and development process - from lead optimization, pre-IND research, early clinical research (bioequivalence, phases I-IIa) and bioanalysis through to global clinical development (phases IIb-IV), central lab and centralized cardiac services. For more information, visit our Website at www.mdsps.com.

About MDS Inc.
MDS Inc. (TSX: MDS; NYSE: MDZ) is a global life-sciences company that provides market-leading products and services that our customers need for the development of drugs, and the diagnosis and treatment of disease. We are a leading global provider of pharmaceutical contract research, medical isotopes for molecular imaging, radiotherapeutics, and analytical instruments. MDS has more than 5,000 highly skilled people in 29 countries. Find out more at www.mdsinc.com or by calling 1-888-MDS-7222, 24 hours a day.