Pharmaceutical and Academic Luminaries Combine Forces to Address Innovation Bottleneck

BOSTON, July 10, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- Enlight Biosciences, a new Boston-based
company conceived by PureTech Ventures together with several major
pharmaceutical companies, announced today that it will direct up to $39M to
advance breakthrough technologies that can fundamentally alter drug discovery
and development. Enlight assembles unique innovative technologies in
collaboration with its industry members. Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Pfizer Inc.
(PFE), and Eli Lilly (LLY) are the founding members and as members, have the
opportunity to invest in the development of these technologies.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080710/NETH017LOGO )

Enlight was co-founded by PureTech Ventures and academic luminaries led by
Dr. H. Robert Horvitz, Enlight's SAB Chair, Nobel Laureate, Howard Hughes
Investigator, and Koch Professor of Biology at MIT; Dr. Sam Gambhir, Professor
of Radiology, Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine, Stanford; Dr. Rakesh
Jain, Cook Professor of Tumor Biology at MGH in the Harvard Medical School;
and Dr. Raju Kucherlapati, co-founder of Millennium and Abgenix, Cabot
Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Enlight's team also includes leading drug developers, such as Dr. Frank
Douglas, PureTech Ventures Partner, former Chief Scientific Officer and
Executive Vice President of Aventis; and Dr. Bennett Shapiro, PureTech
Ventures Partner, former Executive Vice President of Basic Research and
Worldwide Licensing at Merck & Co., Inc.

"The biopharmaceutical industry has a great need for innovative enabling
technologies that will catalyze fundamental transformation of the drug
discovery and development process. A collaborative entrepreneurial initiative
such as Enlight that is dedicated to such technological innovation in R&D
meets that need in an ideal way. We are excited about our partnership with
Enlight and its team of world-renowned scientists," stated Dr. Steven Paul,
Executive Vice President, Science and Technology, Eli Lilly and Company and
President, Lilly Research Laboratories.

Enlight is focused on technology that will connect preclinical research,
clinical development, and medical practice. Enlight develops these
technologies in a "pre-competitive" model to meet the needs of the consortium
of Enlight founders, applying a variety of scientific approaches, including
both traditional pharmaceutical company expertise and more entrepreneurial
approaches. Enlight has already initiated programs in the areas of molecular
imaging, biologics, and drug delivery and is planning to launch programs in
other areas.

Dr. Rod MacKenzie, Senior Vice President of Pfizer Global R&D, said "The
need for breakthrough technologies that enable innovation in biopharmaceutical
science is an urgent priority for all of us engaged in bringing new medicines
to patients. Enlight Biosciences is a creative new venture with a team of
world-leading scientists. We are pleased to partner with Enlight Biosciences
in this exciting new business model."

Historical examples of vital enabling technologies include PCR, PET,
antibody humanization and more recently RNAi and gene microarrays. Despite
the importance of these technologies, over the last few years most traditional
life science investors have focused their funding on late-stage therapeutic
programs. As a consequence, important technologies that could be of great
strategic impact to the pharmaceutical industry are not being commercialized.

"Enlight's strategy provides a means to apply emerging technologies that
may enhance the probability of success in discovering and developing new
medicines for patients," stated Dr. Mervyn J. Turner, Senior Vice President,
Worldwide Licensing and External Research, Merck & Co., Inc. "Creative models
such as this are important to the future success of our industry."

"At a time when there is concern over productivity in R&D, Enlight
Biosciences is providing a safe haven where leaders in the pharmaceutical
industry can develop tools that will accelerate innovation and delivery of
novel drugs to patients," stated Dr. Frank Douglas.

Areas of interest include technologies that increase the ultimate
likelihood of success of drugs that pass early development milestones (e.g.,
drug discovery, chemistry and synthesis platforms); technologies for early
prediction of human response (e.g., predictive efficacy models, predictors of
pharmacokinetics and toxicology); technologies that provide accurate readouts
of both animal and human response to intervention (e.g., molecular imaging and
biomarkers); and technologies that make promising chemical and biological
compounds better suited to human treatment (e.g., formulation and drug
delivery technologies).

Dr. Raju Kucherlapati said, "Enlight turns the standard approach to
technology development on its head. Enlight starts with the most pressing
unmet needs in the industry and works with industry and academic leaders to
creatively address these needs, in contrast with the more typical
technology-centric approach. That allows us to focus on the most critical
problems facing the industry."

About Pfizer

Pfizer Inc, founded in 1849, is dedicated to better health and greater
access to healthcare for people and their valued animals. Every day,
approximately 90,000 colleagues in more than 150 countries work to discover,
develop, manufacture and deliver quality, safe and effective prescription
medicines to patients. www.pfizer.com

About Merck

Merck & Co., Inc. is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company
dedicated to putting patients first. Established in 1891, Merck discovers,
develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet
medical needs. The company devotes extensive efforts to increase access to
medicines through far-reaching programs that not only donate Merck medicines
but help deliver them to the people who need them. Merck also publishes
unbiased health information as a not-for-profit service. Additional
information about Merck is available at www.merck.com

About Eli Lilly

Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing
portfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products by
applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from
collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in
Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers -- through medicines and
information -- for some of the world's most urgent medical needs. Additional
information about Lilly is available at www.lilly.com

About Enlight

Enlight is a Boston-based company established in partnership with major
pharmaceutical companies to develop breakthrough innovations that will
fundamentally alter drug discovery and development.

Enlight was founded by PureTech Ventures and a team of industry leaders
and academic luminaries. Enlight proactively addresses critical unmet industry
needs with innovations drawn from academic laboratories, startups, and ideas
generated internally by the Enlight team. Contact: David Steinberg, Founding
CEO Enlight Biosciences, Senior Principal, PureTech Ventures.
dsteinberg@enlightbio.com

www.enlightbio.com

About PureTech Ventures

PureTech Ventures is a Boston-based venture creation firm specializing in
translating breakthrough research from top tier academic institutions into
therapies that will impact human health. PureTech's Partners include
entrepreneurs and leaders from the top echelon of pharma, biotech and academia
including Dr. Ronald Cape (founder, Cetus), Dr. Robert Langer (renowned MIT
professor), Dr. Frank Douglas (former Chief Scientific Officer, Aventis), Dr.
Bennett Shapiro (former EVP Worldwide Basic and External Research, Merck), Dr.
John Zabriskie (former CEO Pharmacia & Upjohn), and Daphne Zohar (PureTech
Founder and Managing Partner). www.PureTechVentures.com

SOURCE Enlight Biosciences

http://www.enlightbio.com

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