The Woodlands, TX — April 16,  2007. Rigaku Americas Corporation is pleased to announce the installation and commissioning of the first Rigaku FR-E+ SuperBright by Astex Therapeutics Limited of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Of comparable brightness to second-generation synchrotron beamlines, producing intensities of 1.6x10¹¹ X-rays/mm²/sec, the FR-E+ SuperBright microfocus rotating anode X-ray generator is the most intense home laboratory X-ray source available today for macromolecular crystallography. Installed and commissioned in Q1 of 2007, the system is being used as an integrated component of Astex's Pyramid™  drug discovery platform.

Commenting on the new acquisition, Dr. Andrew J. Sharff, Senior Research Associate at Astex, said "Preliminary results with the new system have so far been very impressive. We are able to collect high quality data on targets that up to now have had to be taken to the synchrotron. Installation and start-up of the system have gone very smoothly."

Astex Therapeutics

Based in Cambridge, U.K., Astex Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that discovers and develops molecularly-targeted drugs in areas of unmet medical need with a primary focus in oncology. Astex has a broad and expanding pipeline of products in clinical and preclinical development all of which have been generated internally using its proprietary drug discovery engine, Pyramid.

Pyramid exploits the unique capability of high-throughput X-ray crystallography to accurately define the binding of low affinity drug fragments to therapeutic target proteins. The fragments are subsequently optimized into potent and selective drug candidates that bind to these targets. This approach is facilitated by Astex's integrated drug discovery capabilities which cover all aspects of structural biology using X-ray crystallography and NMR, bioinformatics, computational and medicinal chemistry, cell biology, DMPK (drug metabolism & pharmacokinetics) and in vivo pharmacology and preclinical and clinical development expertise.

Rigaku

Since its inception in Japan in 1951, Rigaku has been at the forefront of analytical and industrial instrumentation technology. Rigaku and its subsidiaries form a global group focused on life sciences and general purpose analytical instrumentation. With hundreds of major innovations to its credit, Rigaku and its subsidiary companies are world leaders in the fields of small molecule and protein crystallography, X-ray spectrometry and diffraction, X-ray optics, as well as semiconductor metrology. Rigaku employs over 1,100 people in the manufacture and support of its analytical equipment. Its products are in use in more than 70 countries—supporting research, development, and quality assurance activities. Throughout the world, Rigaku continuously promotes partnerships, dialog, and innovation within the global scientific and industrial community.

For further information, contact:

Joseph D. Ferrara, Ph.D.
SVP, Life Science and CSO
Rigaku • tel: 281-362-2300 • eMail: joseph.ferrara@rigaku.com