SurroMed Inc has entered into a development and sales agreement with MediBic of Tokyo, Japan. MediBic and SurroMed will collaborate on the development of high value biomarker discovery product offerings, and MediBic will act as SurroMed's exclusive sales representative in Japan for SurroMed's biomarker discovery solutions.

"We are pleased to establish this relationship with MediBic, the leading Japanese biotech company providing genomics and informatics services to the Japanese pharmaceutical industry. We are confident that their outstanding record and their longstanding relationships will enable us to expand the market in Japan for our bioanalytic solutions," said Gordon Ringold, CEO and Chairman of SurroMed.

"MediBic looks forward to working closely with SurroMed, the leader in the field of biomarker discovery. Together we intend to provide biomarker discovery products and solutions uniquely tailored to the needs of the Japanese pharmaceutical industry," said Yasuhiro Hashimoto, founder, president and CEO of MediBic.

SurroMed's integrated biomarker discovery program combines proprietary sample preparation techniques with advanced high-resolution mass spectrometric methods for the differential analysis of biological samples. Subsequently, detailed bioanalytical data is analyzed and mined using SurroMed's suite of informatics tools. Biomarker analysis and profiling has multiple applications across all stages of drug discovery and development from preclinical analysis of animal samples to follow-up evaluation of patients already receiving marketed products.

MediBic specializes in information services and system engineering support for genomic research and drug development. MediBic has relationships with over 20 Japanese pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Yasuhiro Hashimoto, is the founder, president and CEO of MediBic. Prior to founding MediBic in 2000, Dr. Hashimoto was Head of the Departments of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the Tsukuba Research Laboratories, Nippon Glaxo, Japan. Before joining Nippon Glaxo, he held the positions of Senior Director, Institute of Immunology, Syntex, Japan and Senior Staff Member, Syntex Discovery Research, Palo Alto, California.