Tripos, Inc., a leading provider of drug discovery chemistry and informatics products, announced an amendment to its strategic collaboration with Pfizer Inc. for the design, synthesis and purification of druglike compounds. Tripos will reduce file enrichment activities with Pfizer, but partially offsetting this reduction, Tripos will engage in new work for Pfizer in the areas of hit follow-up and large library production, the next steps in the drug discovery process that follow directly from screening library compounds. Terms of the amended agreement include a reduction in the remaining work to be done under this four-year, $100 million collaboration, resulting in a decrease in the total contract value of approximately 10 per cent, with the bulk of the reduction occurring in 2005.

"Our chemistry collaboration with Pfizer remains a top priority and an integral part of our expanding discovery research business," said John McAlister, president and CEO of Tripos. "With this amended agreement, we have greater flexibility to enter into additional discovery research partnerships with available capacity at our Tripos Receptor Research facility.

"We have exceeded all our milestones for the duration of the project thus far. Furthermore, the revised collaboration moves us into the next important stage in the drug discovery process: hit follow-up and large library production," McAlister said.