National Institute of Mental Health Awards SRI International Multi-Year Contract for Preclinical Safety and Pharmacokinetics Studies

Agreement Further Establishes SRI as a Major Provider of Preclinical Services to NIMH

MENLO PARK, California - January 27, 2003 - The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has awarded independent research institute SRI International a contract to perform NIMH's preclinical safety and pharmacokinetics studies for brain imaging agents and central nervous system drugs.

This project is fully funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, under Contract No. N01MH32001, in the amount of $1,157,280, which represents 100 percent of the total costs of this effort. The estimated value of the contract is $6.1 million over the next five years.

The contract will provide a new resource to the NIMH to allow researchers to move imaging agents and central nervous system therapeutics into clinical development using SRI's broad toxicology and pharmacology resources. Candidate compounds will be provided by academic investigators throughout the world who are developing promising imaging agents and therapeutics and wish to expedite preclinical development using NIMH resources.

SRI will provide a range of preclinical services including toxicology, pharmacokinetics, dose preparation, analytical chemistry, project management, and quality assurance. The program will be led by Principal Investigator Dr. Jon Mirsalis, director of the Toxicology and Pharmacology Laboratory in SRI's Biosciences Division.

SRI also conducts the NIMH Chemical Synthesis and Drug Supply Program. This program, which synthesizes and provides novel or difficult-to-obtain psychoactive compounds to the scientific community for use in research relevant to mental health, is under the direction of Dr. Mary Tanga, director of SRI's Medicinal Chemistry Department. SRI works with qualified academic investigators who require the synthesis of compounds, and provides them at no cost to the investigator. Information about the NIMH Chemical Inventory and submitting requests for compounds is available at http://www.sri.com/biosciences/nimh/nimh-tox.html.

These two major programs firmly establish SRI as a major provider of preclinical services to the NIMH.

About SRI International's Biosciences Division
SRI International, a U.S. government contractor since 1947, has been meeting the needs of the National Institutes of Health since 1956. In addition to its two major programs for the NIMH, SRI is one of the National Cancer Institute's primary preclinical contractors for development of cancer drugs. SRI is also a major contractor for the preclinical development of compounds from the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and other institutes. Last year, SRI's Biosciences Division had a 75 percent grant or contract application success rate, many in collaboration with university investigators and companies.

SRI's Biosciences Division works with government agencies and commercial pharmaceutical companies, large and small, to provide a broad range of preclinical discovery and development services, including medicinal chemistry, custom synthesis, efficacy and safety evaluations, pharmacokinetics and metabolism studies, analytical chemistry and formulation design and production in a GLP and cGMP environment.

For example, SRI assists companies in writing and obtaining government grants such as NIH Small Business Innovative Research and Small Technology Transfer programs, and other government awards to facilitate drug development. SRI also assists in obtaining support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Department of Defense Dual-Use activities program.

About SRI International
Silicon Valley-based SRI International (http://www.sri.com) is one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations. Founded as Stanford Research Institute in 1946, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of clients for more than 55 years. The nonprofit research institute performs contract research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses and private foundations. SRI is well known for its innovations in information technology, telecommunications, engineering, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, physics, and the public policy areas of education, health, and economic development. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and creates spin-off companies.