Press Release 4SC AG: 4SC Discovery and CRELUX enter into strategic alliance

Press Release

4SC Discovery and CRELUX enter into a strategic alliance for joint drug discovery services

Planegg-Martinsried, 18 April 2012 - The biotech company 4SC AG (Frankfurt, Prime Standard: VSC) announced that its drug discovery affiliate 4SC Discovery GmbH and CRELUX GmbH, a leading company for protein crystallography services, have entered into a strategic partnership for integrated drug discovery services. Both partners are adding core competencies to a joint discovery platform geared towards comprehensive drug discovery services under one roof. Pharma and Biotech customers will get quick and affordable high quality services for the discovery and optimization of novel small molecule drugs.

The integrated drug discovery platform i2c (idea to candidate) offers a seamless process from early concept through to a preclinical development candidate ready to advance into formal animal model testing and thereafter into clinical trials. The i2c client groups are pharma companies looking to outsource part of their early discovery projects and also small and mid-size biotech companies lacking the relevant infrastructure. Besides the standard fee-for service offerings i2c also includes research collaborations based on risk sharing models including milestones and royalties. These collaborations are provided as tailor made solutions for smaller sized companies and interested pharma partners.

4SC and CRELUX have a long and successful track record in the discovery and development of novel drugs. Both partners are adding their synergistic competencies to i2c. CRELUX is a leading company in advancing innovations in protein production, crystallography and compound screening. Next to its strong in silico screening and medicinal chemistry capacities, 4SC Discovery adds to that a team of experienced pharmacologists that has successfully brought a number of small molecule drugs from discovery to clinical trials. As one example, 4SC's proprietary in silico screening technology can test the activity potential of millions of substances, selecting promising candidates for further iterations of optimisation in the lab and at the computer.

Dr. Daniel Vitt, Managing Director of 4SC Discovery GmbH and Chief Scientific Officer of 4SC AG, noted: 'This partnership is of high strategic value to 4SC Discovery. With CRELUX we have found a competent and highly synergistic technology partner well known to us. By adding their competencies - especially in protein production and crystallization - we are able to offer much broader services to our customers and even cover the complete drug discovery value chain. With this alliance we aim to generate additional business and to further strengthen our business model and the one of our parent company 4SC AG.'

'Joining with 4SC Discovery allows us to immediately offer more comprehensive drug discovery services and thus is perfectly covering a very important strategic goal of CRELUX. We are working with 4SC since many years and efficiently executed a number of drug discovery projects. The established processes and the door-to-door location of both companies will now also accelerate our joint customer projects. Looking at the current drug discovery landscape we are convinced that the i2c platform will contribute significantly to the discovery projects of our customers' added Dr. Michael Schaeffer, Executive Director and Co-founder of CRELUX.

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About 4SC Discovery

4SC Discovery GmbH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of 4SC AG that offers technologies and tailored research services covering drug discovery and chemical optimisation through to a preclinical development candidate. The company focuses its services on offering customers in the pharmaceutical, biotech and chemical industries the cost and time-to-market benefits that result from a drug discovery and optimisation process based on a powerful, computer-aided, screening and discovery platform. In addition, 4SC Discovery also applies its comprehensive pharmacological expertise to investigating new compounds in the areas of cancer and autoimmune disease - a measure also intended to further enhance the clinical development pipeline for the 4SC Group. 4SC Discovery aims to engage in partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to accelerate the development of its research programmes and further advance their commercialisation.

About 4SC Group

The Group managed by 4SC AG (ISIN DE0005753818, Frankfurt Prime Standard: VSC) discovers and develops targeted small-molecule drugs for the treatment of diseases with a high unmet medical need in various autoimmune and cancer indications. These drugs are intended to provide patients with innovative treatment options that are more tolerable and efficacious than existing therapies, and provide a better quality of life. At the end of 2011, 4SC Group had 96 employees. The company was founded in 1997.

About CRELUX

CRELUX (www.crelux.com) specializes in tailor made protein and protein crystallography drug discovery services. The company is a professional and dedicated service provider for the global pharma and biotech industry. CRELUX is privately owned with no venture capital or other external investment and is therefore fully independent of external shareholders. The company is solely committed to long-term development and growth with all profit being re-invested into the business.

CRELUX is a client focused provider with a portfolio of premium drug discovery services based on our top level protein expertise. In our PRIME PROTEIN programs we are advancing innovations in protein expression to promote the availability of high quality proteins for use in assays, diagnostics and crystallization. Our XPRESS portfolio of readily available crystallographic targets grants turn-around times within a few weeks. Our XPERT crystallography services from concept to high resolution complex structure are provided under individual agreements following our customer's needs. In addition we are offering compound and fragment screening based on our unique screening technology INTRACT. Finally, our i2c (idea to candidate) service includes target to hit and concept to early development candidate fee-for-service projects.

Legal Note

This document may contain projections or estimates relating to plans and objectives relating to our future operations, products, or services; future financial results; or assumptions underlying or relating to any such statements; each of which constitutes a forward-looking statement subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. Actual results could differ materially, depending on a number of factors.

For more information please visit www.4sc.de or www.4sc-discovery.de or www.crelux.com or contact directly:

4SC AG
Jochen Orlowski, Investor Relations & Public Relations
jochen.orlowski(at)4sc.com, Tel.: +49 (0) 89 70 07 63 66

Bettina v. Klitzing-Stückle, Corporate Communications
bettina.von.klitzing(at)4sc.com, Tel.: +49 (0) 89 70 07 63 0

MC Services
Raimund Gabriel
raimund.gabriel(at)mc-services.eu , Tel.: +49 (0) 89 21 02 28 30

Mareike Mohr
mareike.mohr(at)mc-services.eu, Tel.: +49 (0) 89 21 02 28 40

The Trout Group (USA)
Chad Rubin
Crubin(at)troutgroup.com, Tel.: +1 646 378 2947

CRELUX GmbH
Dr. Michael Schaeffer, Executive Director Strategy & Business
schaeffer(at)crelux.com, Tel.: +49 (0) 89 70 07 60 170