FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 21, 2003

ASINEX Announces One Year Extension to Collaboration with Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, a division of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V (J&JPRD).

Moscow, July, 2003-ASINEX, a leading European provider of Lead Generation and Optimization services, today announced a one year extension to a discovery chemistry agreement with J&JPRD part of the world's largest healthcare company, Johnson and Johnson. The deal was initially signed in June 2002.

An undisclosed number of ASINEX scientists have been working closely with Janssen Pharmaeutica in order to design and synthesize libraries of new compounds. The collaboration has also included Lead Optimization and Custom Synthesis services.

Dr Dimitri Genis, ASINEX Director of Research commented: 'The extension of this deal is further proof that ASINEX is an effective and reliable provider of lead optimization and custom synthesis services. We are delighted to prolong the agreement for a further year'

ASINEX (www.asinex.com) is a full-service chemistry provider of 'Intelligent Chemistry` for the lead generation and optimization stage of drug discovery. Well known as a supplier of diverse, small molecule libraries for screening and building blocks for combinatorial chemistry, ASINEX has developed a reputation for cost-effective and efficient Lead Optimization, Custom Synthesis and Focused Library Generation. Kinase, GPCR and Ion-Channel targeted libraries have recently been launched. Based in Moscow, with a total of 104 chemists (41 PhDs), 8 computational (6 PhDs) chemists and 17 biologists (11 PhDs), ASINEX has powerful drug discovery resources.

CONTACTS:

ASINEX Ltd Ludmila Sadovenko Chief Marketing Manager Tel: (00)7 095 190 7960 Fax: (00)7 095 190 7960 Email: sadovenko@asinex.com