SAN DIEGO, CA -- Anadys Pharmaceuticals announced today the development of an integrated cheminformatics platform. The platform includes elements to organize and track Anadys' rapidly growing proprietary chemical knowledge base as well as "virtual screening" capabilities that predict small molecule activity, toxicity and bioavailability. The proprietary software suite is comprised of a number of modules. The first module inventories and tracks the Anadys compound library. The software combines Java-based modules that integrate chemical information with Oracle databases. The second module is a proprietary "virtual screening" Web-based program named PROTOS(TM) (Pattern Recognition Of The Optimal Structures). The software enables pattern recognition in sets of compounds and can be used to predict properties of new molecules based on training sets. Anadys will use PROTOS(TM) to predict activity, toxicity and bioavailability of compounds for its internal programs and will commercialize this technology through discovery partnerships. Some of the unique features of PROTOS(TM) are its ease of use, the incorporated validation feature and the visual interface that allows scientists to see which part of a molecule contributes to a desired property. "This integrated platform is a testament to Anadys' commitment to integrating cheminformatics into the drug discovery process," said Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc. "One feature will allow the implementation of fast and flexible data warehousing applications." Dr. Xanthopoulos added, "The virtual screening capability should enhance the drug discovery process at Anadys because it can increase the hit rate and provide visualization tools to help the scientists rationalize the biological responses found in the screens. By combining our proprietary virtual screening capabilities with our exceptional ATLAS(TM) high throughput screening of small molecules, we have positioned Anadys to find drugs faster and more efficiently." The architect of PROTOS(TM), Dr. Alberto Gobbi, is a key member of the Scientific Computing Group at Anadys Pharmaceuticals. "One of the powerful aspects about our platform and PROTOS(TM) in particular is that the output of the program improves as you feed it more data," said Dr. Gobbi. "The continual stream of data coming from our ATLAS(TM) screens will be fed into PROTOS(TM) and should result in a dramatic improvement in our ability to identify drug-like molecules that our high-output medicinal chemists can rapidly synthesize." For more information, visit www.anadyspharma.com