ACLA Aclara Biosciences, (MM)

ACLARA and GlaxoSmithKline Evaluating eTag(TM) Technology for Patient Selection for Targeted Cancer Therapies MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ACLARA BioSciences (NASDAQ:ACLA) announced today that they have entered into an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) to evaluate ACLARA's proprietary eTag(TM) technology assays for their potential use in patient selection for certain of GSK's targeted cancer therapies. Under the agreement, GSK will provide ACLARA with drug-treated biological samples and ACLARA will test the samples with its eTag assays. ACLARA and GSK will then correlate the parameters measured as biomarkers with response to the drug. GSK will provide funding to ACLARA for the study. "We are pleased that GlaxoSmithKline has decided to evaluate eTag assays for clinical applications in cancer drug development," said Thomas Klopack, ACLARA's chief executive officer. "We already have a working relationship with GSK on drug discovery applications of eTags. Broadening the relationship to include eTag clinical applications has the potential to provide greater value to GSK." ACLARA's eTag assays enable detailed analysis of protein drug targets and signaling pathways in cancer cells, including samples that are formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded, the standard format in most pathology labs. The assays can provide information on a drug's mechanism of action, selectivity and potency in a biological setting in pre-clinical research, and enable enrichment or selection of clinical trial populations later in development. In addition, ACLARA believes these assays will ultimately be used to help physicians better determine whether certain therapies are more appropriate for individual cancer patients, and whether to combine therapies with different mechanisms or properties. About ACLARA Founded in 1995, ACLARA is a biotechnology company working to provide physicians and researchers products and services to make personalized medicine a reality through its protein-based assay technology -- the eTag(TM) System. ACLARA is dedicated to unlocking the power of pathway biology to accelerate the development of next-generation targeted therapeutics, recognizing the most appropriate patients for approved therapies and identifying the highly-specific, protein-based biomarkers that will enable physicians to create truly personalized treatment regimens for patients suffering from cancer and other life-threatening disorders. ACLARA is commercializing its proprietary eTag System to enhance and accelerate drug discovery research and the preclinical and clinical development of targeted therapeutics. ACLARA's technology may also enable the development of highly specific, protein-based diagnostics capable of providing physicians with a powerful tool for creating personalized treatment regimens for patients suffering from serious and difficult-to-treat cancers. For more information on ACLARA please visit the Company's web site at http://www.aclara.com/. Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this news release that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to factors that could cause actual results to differ materially for ACLARA from those projected. Those factors include risks and uncertainties relating to the performance of our products, anticipated progress in commercialization of our eTag(TM) assay system; the potential for use of our eTag assays in clinical development programs; the potential for use of our eTag assays as diagnostic tests; our ability to successfully conduct clinical studies and the results obtained from those studies; our ability to establish reliable, high-volume operations at commercially reasonable costs; expected reliance on a few customers for the majority of our revenues; actual market acceptance of our products and adoption of our technological approach and products by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; our estimate of the size of our markets; our estimates of the levels of demand for our products; our ability to develop organizational capabilities suitable for the further development and commercialization of our eTag assays; the ultimate validity and enforceability of our patent applications and patents; the possible infringement of the intellectual property of others; technological approaches of ACLARA and our competitors; our pending merger with ViroLogic, Inc., including the risk that the closing conditions or the merger may not be satisfied and the merger may not be completed, and costs related to the proposed merger; and other risk factors identified in our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2004 and in the Joint Proxy/Prospectus related to our proposed merger as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trademarks ACLARA BioSciences is a registered trademark, and eTag and the ACLARA logo are trademarks of ACLARA BioSciences, Inc. DATASOURCE: ACLARA BioSciences CONTACT: Alfred Merriweather, VP, Finance and CFO of ACLARA BioSciences, Inc, +1-650-210-1200, or Web site: http://www.aclara.com/

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