GNSC Genaissance Pharmaceuticals (MM)

- Increases Presence in EU Ag Genotyping Market - NEW HAVEN, Conn., Aug. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNSC) announced today that it will provide its high-throughput genotyping services to Biotronics Ltd., headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus, which has been awarded a contract by the Veterinary Services in the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources & Environment as part of Cyprus' efforts to implement the European Union's (EU) mandate for establishing a breeding program in sheep that confers resistance to scrapie. Under the terms of the contract, Biotronics will collect the tissue specimens from the Veterinary Services and send them to Genaissance's genotyping facility in New Haven, CT, where Genaissance will analyze a minimum of 100,000 samples over approximately a three-month period of time. Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats. There is no scientific evidence to indicate that scrapie possesses a risk to human health, but the disease has serious economic consequences for sheep producers whose flocks become infected with the disease. Scientists have identified forms of a sheep gene that may determine a sheep's susceptibility to being infected with scrapie. "We are delighted that we will be providing genotyping services to another EU country," said Gerald F. Vovis, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Genaissance. "We were recently awarded a contract to provide similar services to the Greek government and have been providing these same services for over a year now to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under its National Scrapie Eradication Program." Antisel A. Selidis Bros. S.A., Genaissance's distributor in Greece, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, represented Genaissance in obtaining the contract. About Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is developing innovative products based on its proprietary pharmacogenomic technology and has a revenue-generating business in DNA and pharmacogenomic products and services. Genaissance also markets its proprietary FAMILION(TM) Test, designed to detect mutations responsible for causing Familial Long QT and Brugada Syndromes, two causes of sudden cardiac death. The Company's product development strategy is focused on drug candidates with promising clinical profiles and finding genetic markers to identify a responsive patient population. This strategy is designed to enable Genaissance to leverage existing clinical data and, thus, reduce the costs and risks associated with traditional drug development and increase the probability of clinical success and commercialization. The Company's lead therapeutic product, vilazodone for depression, is in Phase II of development. For more information on Genaissance, visit the Company's website at: http://www.genaissance.com/. This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the expected growth and development of Genaissance's business, such as Genaissance's ability to effectively complete its vilazodone and clozapine programs, detect associations between clinical outcomes and genetic variation, the ability to assess how genetic variation can affect drug response, efforts to build a drug candidate pipeline, the timing and outcome of its genetic testing programs and the ability of Genaissance to apply its technologies to the development, marketing and prescribing of drugs and Genaissance's ability to detect associations between clinical outcomes and genetic variation. Such statements are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially from those referred to in such statements, including, but not limited to, Genaissance's ability to fund its drug development efforts, the extent to which genetic markers (haplotypes) are predictive of clinical outcomes and drug efficacy and safety, the attraction of new business and strategic partners, the adoption of the Company's technologies by the pharmaceutical industry, the acceptance of the Company's cardiac tests by health care providers, the timing and success of clinical trials, competition from pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics companies, the strength of the Company's intellectual property rights and those risks identified in the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 9, 2005, and in other filings the Company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of Genaissance as of the date of this release. Genaissance disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement. DATASOURCE: Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CONTACT: Gerald F. Vovis, Ph.D., Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc., +1-203-786-3423, ; Rhonda Chiger (investors), Rx Communications, +1-917-322-2569, Web site: http://www.genaissance.com/

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