Geneva Bioinformatics S.A. (GenBio) has announced a distribution agreement with the Bioinformatics Institute for Global Good (BiGG), a research institute located in Tokyo with both business and academic resources This partnership combines Phenyx, GeneBio's protein identification software platform, with BiGG's unique position in the Japanese market in order to bring pertinent and massive product coverage to this fast growing proteomics marketplace.

Under the terms of the agreement, BiGG, through its existing business relationships with Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. and Netwell Corporation, will establish an extensive distribution campaign for Phenyx in Japan in coordination with GeneBio's Japanese branch. This collaboration allows GeneBio to leverage the expertise, reputation and sales strength of Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd., one of the leading Japanese software companies and a major player in the Japanese market, notably in the realm of Life Sciences, GenBio said in a release.

This collaboration, in conjunction with the endorsement of Professor Gojobori, founder of BiGG, greatly expands the potential for Phenyx in the Japanese proteomics market. In addition, this agreement paves the way for the distribution of future GeneBio products in Japan through BiGG and its member companies, potentially strengthening the stature of both GeneBio and BiGG as bioinformatics leaders in Japan, the release added.

GeneBio's Phenyx is a software platform for the identification and characterization of proteins and peptides from mass spectrometry data. Developed by GeneBio in collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) and incorporating the true probabilistic and flexible scoring system OLAV developed at GeneProt Inc., Phenyx is specifically designed to meet the concurrent demands of high-throughput MS data analysis and dynamic high quality results assessment.

Nasri Nahas, CEO of GeneBio said, "This agreement with BiGG is the result of this endeavour and of the efficiency of our Japanese branch, of which I am very proud; it is a testament to the strategic importance that we place on the Japanese market in terms of future company growth. Dr. Gojobori is a renowned leader in the proteomics and bioinformatics fields in Japan whose backing for Phenyx and GeneBio's activities together with BiGG's unique academic and business network will, we believe, strengthen our chances of achieving a successful product penetration."