FEI and sidec tackle validation of drug targets

FEI Company (Nasdaq: FEIC) and Sweden-based Sidec Technologies AB today announced that the two companies will collaborate on the commercialization of Protein Tomography™ solutions and services based on Sidec’s proprietary software and intellectual property, and FEI’s transmission electron microscopes (TEMs).

Protein Tomography is a new technology developed to address critical issues around drug target validation and translational medicine in the pharmaceutical industry, improving target validation processes and shortening development time for new pharmaceuticals. Based on current market practices, Protein Tomography is estimated to be a (U.S.) $200 million market with the potential to grow several fold within a few years.

“Understanding drug targets and the disease mechanisms on a molecular level is extremely difficult, resulting in severe problems when translating bench research into human biology,” commented Hans Johansson, president and CEO of Sidec. “Many drugs fail when they progress from pre-clinical studies to clinical trials. Imaging and comparing drug targets from different species using Protein Tomography provides insight into the molecular differences underlying this attrition.”

FEI has led the development of cryo electron microscopy for the imaging of biological structures in close collaboration with many top level academic groups in Europe and the US. Sidec is pioneering the field of protein imaging using cryo electron tomography and has several research collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies.

Protein Tomography consists of advanced electron microscopy instrumentation, proprietary data acquisition and reconstruction software, as well as scientific expertise to enable the imaging and analysis of individual protein molecules in cells and tissues. FEI and Sidec offer this as a service through Sidec, as an on-premises service, or through a software and other intellectual property license arrangement combined with a TEM system sale.

“FEI is very pleased to offer this advanced solution for Protein Tomography with Sidec,” commented Vahé Sarkissian, president and CEO of FEI. “We have a long-standing reputation for providing enabling tools for life science. As we move from the genomics to the proteomics era, we will continue to identify customer needs and work to deliver the advanced applications that our growing and diverse life science market, which we refer to as NanoBiology, demands.”

About Sidec Technologies AB
Sidec Technologies AB provides solutions to significantly improve the predictive value of pre-clinical experiments. The company’s proprietary 3-D reconstruction technology and electron tomography enables the visualization of disease events at a molecular level, in virtually any environment and biological context, thereby bridging the current gap between the test tube and human biology. With offices in Stockholm and Lund, Sweden and San Diego, California, Sidec offers contract research to the pharmaceutical industry and academic institutions. More information can be found at www.sidec.com.

Margaretha Gadnell
Marketing
Sidec Technologies AB
+46 8 47 77 600
margaretha.gadnell@sidec.com