Boston, MA – November 7, 2012 – Covington Associates, LLC announced its role as financial advisor to BioSeek, plc, a provider of high quality, human-tissue based tools and services for drug and drug target discovery. Covington acted as exclusive M&A advisor to BioSeek on the sale of its San Francisco-based drug discovery business to DiscoveRx Corporation, based in Fremont, CA.

BioSeek’s phenotypic screening technology improves the success rate of pharmaceutical research and development by integrating primary cell profiling into the drug discovery process. The proprietary BioMAP systems incorporate primary human cell-based disease models that generate predictive biological activity profiles for potential drugs. As a result, the technology drives the selection and development of new drug candidates and safer chemicals.

BioSeek, formerly part of the Asterand Company, has an established and growing customer base of pharmaceutical and biotech customers. Recently it was the recipient of a $46.8 million grant award from EPA Toxcast program for the use of BioSeek’s human primary cell assay platform to help predict the biological activity and potential toxicity of up to 60,000 additional samples, including environmental chemicals, pesticides, failed pharmaceuticals and nanomaterials.

“The integration of BioSeek provides two new capabilities to DiscoveRx Corporation,” said Pyare L. Khanna, President and Chief Executive Officer of DiscoveRx, “expertise in primary cell disease models and a highly differentiated compound characterization services. This acquisition allows us to further strengthen our position as a premier drug discovery solution provider that develops and commercializes high-value products and specialized services.”

“The acquisition brings together BioSeek’s primary cell drug discovery services, which have become integral to the pharmaceutical industry’s drug discovery programs, with DiscoveRx’s market leading products and services, providing a comprehensive suite of products for researchers in the academic, pharma and diagnostics markets.” said Steve Mermelstein, Managing Director at Covington Associates and lead advisor on the sale. “We are pleased to be able to assist Ellen and her team in the completion of this strategic transaction that will enable BioSeek to greatly expand the utility of its BioMAP platform.”

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

About BioMAP® Systems:
BioMAP® Systems incorporate predictive primary human cell-based disease models that generate uniquely informative activity profiles of each potential drug, assisting in the selection and development of new drug candidates.

For more information, please visit www.biomapsystems.com

About DiscoveRx Corporation:
Founded in 2000, DiscoveRx is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in Fremont, California, with additional offices in San Diego, California and Birmingham, England. The Company pioneered the use of B-galactosidase enzyme fragment complementation (EFC) in HitHunter biochemical and PathHunter cell based assays for discovery research. In addition to the EFC platform, DiscoveRx also holds extensive intellectual property for its second core technology, an in vitro binding assay platform called KINOMEscan.. Utilizing these two proprietary platforms, DiscoveRx has developed and commercialized industry leading panels of GPCR, Kinase, and NHR assay solutions for drug discovery research. Many of DiscoveRx.s innovative solutions have been widely adopted in pharmaceutical, academic and biotechnology laboratories worldwide.

For more information, please visit www.discoverx.com

About Covington Associates LLC
Covington Associates is a specialty investment banking firm founded in 1991 serving business service, consumer, industrial, healthcare, and technology companies throughout the country. Focused on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity capital raising, debt and equity restructuring, and strategic advisory assignments for middle market companies, Covington Associates has completed transactions ranging in value from $10 million to nearly $2 billion for both private and publicly traded companies.

To learn more about Covington Associates, visit www.covllc.com.

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