Red Herring Names GNI 'One of Asia's Most Promising Technology Companies'

PharmaManufacturing.com
08/22/2006

GNI Ltd., a leading biopharmaceutical company in Asia, announced Aug. 22 that it has been selected in the final Red Herring 100 Asia, which recognizes the region's most promising and innovative technology companies. The 100 award-winning companies were drawn from all fields of technology and were selected from markets throughout Asia, including Japan, China, South Korea, India, Singapore and Australia.

Since its establishment in November 2001, GNI has expanded its global network and now has operations in Tokyo and Fukuoka in Japan, Shanghai and Beijing in China, Cambridge in the UK, and San Jose, Calif. in the U.S. Combining innovative Western science with cost-efficient research capabilities in China, GNI has successfully mapped human gene regulatory networks and, according to a press release, has become the first and only company to develop, integrate and deploy the technologies and data necessary to harness gene network knowledge for drug development and discovery.

In March 2006 GNI launched the GNI Systems Pharmacology Research Institute, which combines biochemical experimentation with systems-science based technologies to analyze drug affected pathways in human cells, allowing GNI to develop safer drugs with fewer side effects and to quickly discover effective and low-risk drug target genes.

GNI's chairman, chief executive officer and founder, Dr. Christopher Savoie, said, "We are delighted that Red Herring has recognized GNI's achievements. GNI is a dynamic company that works without international borders to access the best resources and technologies from Asia and around the world. The unique combination of gene network computation capabilities and access to the world's most advanced algorithms and supercomputer computation capabilities in Japan, pioneering biological research facilities in the U.K., and a highly advanced Western-standard integrated drug development program in China provides the infrastructure to support GNI's ongoing therapeutic development."

The Red Herring 100 Asia is included in the magazine's Aug. 28 issue. The winners will also be recognized at the Red Herring Asia 2006 conference in Hong Kong from Aug. 28-30, themed "Meet Asia's Innovators."

About GNI

Founded in 2001, GNI, a leader in the field of integrated systems pharmacology, is an international biopharmaceutical company with operations in Japan, China, the U.K. and the U.S. GNI has used ethically approved methods to successfully map gene regulatory networks via a complex process of reverse-engineering. Furthermore, GNI has successfully developed the technology required to apply this data to drug development and discovery, a feat that has not been achieved by any other organization. In June 2005, Shanghai Genomics, which operates an integrated drug discovery platform combining genetic discovery and drug development, became an affiliate of GNI. In April 2006, GNI announced an investment in Beijing Continent Pharmaceutical, which gives the company access to manufacturing and distribution in China. For further information, please visit www.genenetworks.com.