Novel Cancer Drug Programme

FIRST SUCCESSES IN NOVEL CANCER DRUG PROGRAMME- PLANTS AND FLOWERS YIELD CANCER REGULATORY DRUGS, NOT JUST AGGRESSIVE CHEMOTHERAPIES.

UK and Israel : July 13th 2003: UK biotechnology company, MolecularNature, today announced that they have started a drug discovery partnership with US and Israel-based biotech company, Zetiq Technologies, which has already yielded a number of exciting novel cancer regulatory compounds from different plant and flower derived chemical classes.

The collaboration combines MolecularNature's plant derived libraries with Zetiq's CamaRxT platform, a system that precisely detects therapeutically relevant changes to malignant cells caused by drug candidates. CamaRxT leads are cancer-regulatory, changing cancer cells' behaviour rather than killing them. "This makes the treatment more tolerable for patients," according to Zetiq's CEO and President, Dr Dan Gelvan.

"Some of the world's best-selling chemotherapies are plant derived compounds, such as Taxol and Camptosar. The present effort is proving that plants can yield cancer regulatory compounds in addition to traditional toxic chemotherapies." says Hadyn St. P Parry CEO of MolecularNature. He continues "potentially, the solution to this century's main medical problem may be growing in our backyards."

Zetiq's CEO, Dr Dan Gelvan, announced the drug discovery partnership in Israel today. He said MolecularNature's unique and highly focused library is "an excellent match" for Zetiq's revolutionary screening system for identifying potential anti-cancer drugs. "Zetiq's technology, CamaRxT, enables the detection of compounds that would otherwise have been missed in a search for anti-cancer drugs as it detects therapeutic activity in unsuspected chemical classes" Dr Gelvan said.

MolecularNature's unique library is known to be very robust and rated as one of the best libraries in its class. "We have worked with many libraries and find the MolecularNature library to be superior in quality. It fits perfectly into our system and we look forward to identifying novel drugs for the treatment of colon and pancreatic cancer from our partnership," Dr Gelvan said.

"CamaRxT has shed new light on a number of chemical classes in our collection that we had not previously considered as potential anti-cancer drugs." Stated Parry.

Under the terms of the deal, Zetiq have used their CamaRxT technology platform to screen MolecularNature's library. The companies are now investigating the leads that are effective against cancer. The companies will co-develop candidates and jointly decide future drug development projects.

About MolecularNature

MolecularNature Limited (MNL) is a phytochemical compound discovery company concentrating on discovering novel compounds from temperate plants that have known therapeutic activity. MNL was formed in June 1999 as a spin off from the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) in Aberystwyth, Wales.

MNL has had considerable success in isolating novel compounds from plants with historical or reputed therapeutic success. MNL targets plants found in the UK, which are well documented as medicinal sources, but where the compositional basis of bio-activity in the plant has not been satisfactorily determined. MNL uses Phytoquest® platform to identify and isolate pure novel compounds of a wide range of chemical classes. MNL has specific technology and expertise in the identification and isolation of chemicals across the full polarity spectrum, and therefore is better placed than other companies to isolate a full range of bio-active components. For more information about MolecularNature, visit www.molecularnature.com.

About Zetiq

Zetiq is a drug discovery and development company, focusing on innovative cell-based drug discovery systems. Operating out of Malvern, PA, and Rehovot, Israel, Zetiq specializes in the development of cancer-regulatory agents, as a viable replacement for existing chemotherapies with their dire side-effects. Zetiq is a global leader in cell-based high-throughput systems; systems with the ability to test the effect of a drug directly on living cells enabling novel screening applications and rapid incorporation of novel genomic targets into the drug discovery process.

Zetiq's genomics program is focused on high-throughput target-validation for potential cancer-causing and tumor suppressor genes. Zetiq's cell-based systems allow the company to use the same system for target validation and drug discovery, inducing considerable cost and time savings.

Zetiq has a number of drug candidates in pre-clinical development against colon cancer and pancreatic cancer.For more information about Zetiq, visit www.zetiq.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

DR DAN GELVANCEO & PRESIDENT ZETIQ TECHNOLOGIES, LTD Ph: +97 289 36 3670 www.zetiq.com

HADYN St. P. PARRY CEO MOLECULARNATURE LIMITED Ph: +44 1628 773583 www.molecularnature.com