GOVERNMENT

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Vertical*i Holdings Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), today announced an agreement to develop unique technology solutions that support the mission-critical business development activities of the Life Science industry. These solutions, which combine Sun's best-in-class technology infrastructure with Vertical*i's unique enterprise software applications, will help Life Science companies better meet such essential business demands as filling product pipelines, bolstering revenue growth expectations and ensuring competitiveness. Industry insiders and analysts have observed that Life Science companies are continuing to fall behind in their ability to generate new products internally at a rate sufficient to sustain growth rates and satisfy market capitalization expectations. External collaboration has become essential, and most biopharmaceutical and medical device companies are having to step up their business development and licensing activities significantly to meet the challenge. Berlex Laboratories, the U.S. affiliate of Schering AG, one of the world's top 25 pharmaceutical companies, recognizes the need for new IT solutions to support the licensing process. ``The pharmaceutical industry is depending more than ever on innovation and technologies developed by smaller biotech companies,'' said Andreas Muehler, Director, New Business Opportunities, Berlex Laboratories. ``An efficient management system to effectively search the breadth of external opportunities, as well as manage the internal evaluation process is surely needed.'' ``Together, we'll work to bring transparency, efficiency and quality to the licensing decision-making and alliance management process,'' said Tim O'Connor, CEO of Vertical*i. ``Allying with Sun enables Vertical*i to focus on its core competency of developing unparalleled software tools, with Sun providing its industrial-strength products, solutions expertise, and access to a global sales and marketing network.'' While bioinformatics has helped Life Science R&D processes cope with the explosion in data generated by such events as the mapping of the human genome, the Life Science Business Development function continues to face challenges in keeping up with the rise in external opportunities. Inefficiencies abound in data collection, data sharing, information distribution, and decision-making procedures. As a result, Sun and Vertical*i plan to address this critical need by developing a technology solution that integrates Vertical*i's unique Lead Evaluation Application (LEA) enterprise software with Sun's Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform and industry-leading servers running the Solaris(TM) operating environment. ``Vertical*'i's software takes the J2EE architecture directly to the Life Sciences industry,'' says Dirk Heyman, Global Head of Life Sciences and Consumer Products at Sun Microsystems, Inc. ``By meeting established needs within licensing departments, Vertical*i's software provides a targeted entrance for Sun to bring our hardware, software and services to this important industry.'' For more information visit www.sun.com