MerLion Pharmaceuticals Wins Prestigious Pharmaceutical Industry Scrip Award

MerLion Pharmaceuticals (MerLion) today announced that it was awarded 'Best Company in an Emerging Market' at the industry's annual Scrip Awards held in London on December 4th.

In making the award the panel of twelve judges recognised MerLion's excellent performance across a range of business activities in 2006 and 2007: during this time the company has made two strategic acquisitions, closed a significant round of international venture financing and has progressed novel antibacterial compounds into clinical development.

Scrip World Pharmaceutical News, a leading provider of news and analysis for the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, established the awards to recognise excellence and achievement across the worldwide pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. This award ceremony, now in its third year, was attended by over 600 of the industry's leading professionals. Recipients of other awards included; Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough, Merck & Co and Sanofi-Aventis. MerLion was the only award-winning company headquartered outside the USA or Europe.

MerLion's CEO, Dr Tony Buss, said "We are honoured and delighted to receive this prestigious award. It is particularly gratifying that leading pharmaceutical experts from both public and private sectors have recognised the tremendous accomplishments of our staff".

Earlier in the year MerLion was identified by Fierce Biotech, another leading industry journal, as one of the world's fifteen most promising biotechnology companies of 2007.

About MerLion Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd

MerLion Pharmaceuticals is a privately held international drug discovery and development company headquartered in Singapore. The company focuses internal R&D efforts on anti-infectives and maintains a leadership position in natural products drug discovery.
MerLion has a balanced portfolio of assets that includes clinical stage antibiotic candidates, a unique patent position in the area of bacterial virulence, innovative screening approaches and access to the proprietary discovery technologies of its riskshare partners.

About the Scrip Awards

More information on the awards may be found at http://www.scripawards.com
More information on Scrip Pharmaceutical News can be found at http://www.pjbpubs.com/scrip/index.htm