Carbohydrates are the most abundant class of biological molecules in nature and are fundamental to many physiological processes, which can be inhibited or augmented by carbohydrate-based drugs. We believe these processes represent potential drug targets for infectious diseases, cancer and immune-related disorders. Carbohydrates, however, can be difficult to synthesize because of their complex molecular structure. Historically, the synthesis of complex carbohydrate molecules took weeks to months to complete, and thus carbohydrate synthesis for use in therapeutics has often been characterized as prohibitively difficult and time-consuming. Numerous drugs currently on the market have carbohydrate components, which are often implicated in bacterial resistance, and numerous diseases involve interactions with carbohydrate molecules. Carbohydrate synthesis involves the manipulation of existing drugs to improve their spectrum of activity or significantly reduce their side effects. Such drugs include aminoglycosides, glycopeptides, macrolides and antivirals.

Our Technology.    Our proprietary OPopS drug discovery platform allows us to develop potential drug candidates through carbohydrate drug synthesis. OPopS is a computer-aided technology that enables the rapid and low cost synthesis of a wide array of carbohydrate-based compounds. Specifically, the two components of our OPopS technology that allow us to synthesize new compounds are:

• GlycoOptimization. This process enables the modification of a carbohydrate group on an existing drug to improve its properties.

• De Novo Glycosylation. This process enables the addition of new carbohydrate groups on an existing drug to create new, patentable compounds.

We acquired worldwide rights to this technology from The Scripps Research Institute, or TSRI, in July 1999. We have built approximately 500 carbohydrate building blocks, and through our proprietary OptiMer software program, we are able to rapidly and reliably produce a wide variety of carbohydrate-based molecules. With OPopS, we are able to reduce the time required for the synthesis of these molecules from weeks or months to hours. We believe OPopS enables us to develop patentable drugs, optimizing drug performance, improving activity, overcoming bacterial resistance issues and/or improving side effect profiles. Several of our pre-clinical drug candidates have been developed with OPopS and we intend to use this technology to identify additional novel carbohydrate-based product candidates with significant commercial potential.