LION bioscience AG Chooses GemStone Systems and JBoss to Run iDEA™

A tool to support drug discovery acceleration and research cost reduction
through early identification of successful drug candidates.

Beaverton, Oregon and San Diego, California, September 24, 2002 -- GemStone Systems, Inc., the leading provider of zero-latency performance software, today announced that LION bioscience AG (Neuer Market: LIO, WKN 504 350, Nasdaq: LEON ) will use GemStone’s caching technology on the JBoss open source J2EE-based application server to run its web-based version of iDEA™. iDEATM is an in silico Predictive ADME Simulation System designed for lead identification and optimization in early drug discovery programs.

LION’s iDEA™ Predictive ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion) Simulation System is an easy-to-use tool that helps medicinal chemists and pharmacokinetic scientists increase the efficiency of their early drug discovery efforts. iDEA™ uses a modular approach that allows for easy integration into the discovery process in an automated fashion, reading and writing directly into chemical and relational databases. iDEA™ is part of LION’s comprehensive process integration and decision support solutions covering the research and development process.

The iDEA™ system allows the prediction of the ADME characteristics of compounds in humans, and supports the researcher in discovering new leads. The predictive models are based upon a data set of more than 400 proprietary compounds containing chemical structures, in vitro data and human clinical data directly from the life science industry. iDEA™ supports the drug discovery process by allowing researchers to select compounds with the best ADME properties to become drugs early in the process, while reducing development time, resources, and cost.

"We evaluated the market leaders in the application server space, and the combination of GemStone Facet’s caching architecture on JBoss provides the performance, scalability, and reliability needed for our iDEA application,” said Kevin Holme, Ph.D., Vice President of Cheminformatics, LION bioscience. “The integration of GemStone Facets on JBoss enabled us to develop our application in much less time than we anticipated, and it provided us with a cost effective solution that optimizes our existing architecture.”

Planned for release during the fourth quarter of 2002, iDEA TM Version 2.2 will include JBoss. iDEATM Version 2.2 will feature export capabilities, an improved metabolism model, absorption sensitivity analysis, measures of uncertainty for structure-based models, and a new ChemSymphony chemical drawing tool.

About iDEA™

Validated by industry data, iDEA™ helps scientists predict ADME characteristics from in vitro data and chemical structures. It allows scientists to analyze and compare a large number of molecules so that they can focus on the successful human drug candidates earlier.

The iDEA™ Absorption Module predicts the absorption characteristic of a compound from its chemical structure and/or in vitro data. The model predicts the fraction dose absorbed through the portal vein over time. The model predicts the fraction dose absorbed over time using chemical structure, dose, solubility, and permeability. Designed to integrate seamlessly with the Absorption Module, the iDEA™ Metabolism Module predicts the extent of human first pass metabolism for a compound. The model predicts the bioavailability in humans for a compound using absorption data, protein binding, and metabolic turnover data measured in hepatocytes. Each model is thoroughly validated using internal and external data sets to demonstrate its predictive capability.

About GemStone Facets on JBoss

The GemStone Facets on JBoss CMP 2.0 cache is a performance enhancing plug-in for entity beans accessing relational databases. The plug-in leverages the standard functionality of JBoss CMP 2.0 allowing it to map entity beans to relational tables, using settings controlled in the JBoss deployment descriptors. By plugging the GemStone Facets on JBoss CMP 2.0 cache into JBoss CMP 2.0 entity beans, customers can add in-memory caching to their CMP solution. The cache can be configured on a bean by bean basis. GemStone Facets object caching can enhance performance of an entity bean implementation due to its ability to represent entity beans as object networks in an efficient and high-performance manner.

Benefits of the GemStone Facets/JBoss CMP2.0 cache:

Initial benchmark testing of the GemStone Facets on JBoss CMP 2.0 cache has shown significant performance improvements over that of JBoss CMP 2.0 directly to an Oracle database. The GemStone Facets on JBoss CMP 2.0 will also allow for asynchronous update capabilities. This asynchronous update capability allows for an application to continue to be served by Facets while the relational database is unavailable due to maintenance, indexing, schema migration, or extensive reporting locks. The GemStone Facets on JBoss CMP 2.0 cache will also provide benefits in the area of development. During the early phases of development, developers may work offline from the relational database thus isolating them from changing schema. This will result in less development effort and faster time to market.

About JBoss

JBoss is an Open Source, J2EE-based application server implemented in 100% Pure Java. The JBoss community of over 1000 developers worldwide is working to deliver the full range of J2EE tools as the premier enterprise Java application server for the Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform. With upwards of 150,000 downloads per month, JBoss is the most downloaded J2EE-based application server in the industry. JBoss can be embedded in commercial products and is being used in production around the world. JBoss Group LLC is an Atlanta-based professional services company, created by Marc Fleury, founder and lead developer of the JBoss application server. JBoss Group brings together core JBoss developers to provide services such as training, support, consulting, and documentation, as well as management of the JBoss software and services affiliate programs. These commercial activities subsidize the development of the free JBoss server. For more information please see: www.jboss.org.

About LION bioscience AG

LION bioscience (http://www.lionbioscience.com) provides proven information and knowledge management solutions to significantly improve life science R&D performance and productivity. These solutions integrate all R&D disciplines, spanning from genomics to early and late discovery through clinical trials. LION applies these solutions for its internal drug discovery program in the field of nuclear receptors with the goal to improve the overall productivity of the drug discovery process, outlicense validated target-lead combinations and partner with pharmaceutical companies on an IT-enhanced technology platform.

Founded in 1997, LION has more than 500 employees, with headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, and subsidiaries in Cambridge, UK, Cambridge, MA, Cleveland, OH, Columbus, OH, and San Diego, CA, USA. To date, LION has established partnerships with leading life science companies, including Aventis, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celera, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, Janssen, Merck Inc., Nestlé, Novartis, Paradigm Genetics, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Roche, Schering AG and Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals.

About GemStone Systems, Inc.

GemStone Systems’ technology enables customers to make split-second business decisions and immediately adapt to market change. Our zero-latency performance technology significantly increases the performance and manageability of real-time business applications, and increases user and system productivity. Building on 20 years of experience developing high-performance, highly scalable systems software, this revolutionary technology supports multiple languages, integrates with existing architectures and can be built into new applications. Our industry-leading customers like JPMorgan Chase, IntercontinentalExchange Inc., UBS Warburg, BellSouth Telecommunications and Orient Overseas Container Line depend on our technology and expertise to build scalable, mission-critical applications that have set the standard in their industries, and given them the competitive edge to be increasingly profitable.

Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, GemStone sells and supports its solutions through its US sales force and a worldwide network of distributors. For detailed product and company information, please visit www.gemstone.com

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GemStone and GemStone Facets are trademarks or registered trademarks of GemStone Systems, Inc.

JBoss is a registered trademark of Marc Fleury.

LION bioscience®, iDEA™ are either registered trademarks of LION bioscience AG or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries, or there are pending applications by LION bioscience AG or its subsidiaries for these trademarks in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademark of the respective owners.