Tripos Inc, a leading provider of drug discovery chemistry and informatics products and services, file enrichment collaboration with Pfizer Inc. will conclude in December 2005. This will complete Tripos' work on Pfizer's library collection.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tripos received approximately $90 million over the four-year project for the design, synthesis and purification of drug-like compounds, hit follow-up and large library production, states a company release.

"This was a very productive relationship, and the knowledge and experience we have gained through our work with Pfizer during the past four years will benefit our existing and future customers with whom we continue to discover and develop new drug candidates. As our Pfizer collaboration draws to an end, we remain committed to our discovery research business, as evidenced by our significant investment in Tripos discovery research and our new LeadDiscovery programme," said Dr. John P. McAlister, president and CEO of Tripos.

"We are evaluating the level of resources necessary to build high-value discovery research collaborations with our customers, and anticipate a reorganisation of Tripos discovery research may be necessary. We will carefully review staff levels to ensure we can continue to deliver the highest-quality service without impacting our existing and developing collaborations. Tripos discovery informatics (our software business) is not impacted by the Pfizer file enrichment contract completion, and existing informatics contracts with Pfizer are unaffected," added McAlister.

Tripos Discovery Research offers high-value drug discovery collaborations for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. It has ongoing collaborations with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and a developing pipeline of new business. Tripos' LeadDiscovery programme, launched this summer, offers a new way for companies to partner with Tripos to develop novel pre-clinical compounds with proven potency, selectivity, and the potential to own intellectual property in the areas of G-protein-coupled receptors and kinases.