Article appeared in VentureWire

AnVil Buys IP from Defunct Bioinformatics Firm ActiveCyte

By Estee Pierce

11/13/2002 BURLINGTON, Mass. - AnVil, a provider of information analysis and visualization technology for drug discovery and drug development, announced that it has acquired key intellectual property from Newton, Mass-based ActiveCyte, a defunct bioinformatics firm.

Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

AnVil has purchased a hierarchical taxonomy of therapeutic areas and mechanisms of drug actions, which it plans to use as part of its analytical and visualization technology platform for the exploration of data sets in a variety of disease and treatment areas.

The taxonomy was developed by ActiveCyte in partnership with scientists from a number of large pharmaceutical companies and academic research centers, and was created for researchers in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as for clinical research organizations. The compendium also includes information that can be applied to drug discovery for a range of disease areas, the company said.

The newly licenced IP will look familiar to AnVil's staff, a good deal of whom emigrated from ActiveCyte last October, after the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after acquisition plan fell through. AnVil's president and CEO Richard Gill held a similar position with ActiveCyte, as did other key employees, including the chief technology officer, and head of quality assurance. Mr. Gill said that several former ActiveCyte employees also hold consultant positions with AnVil, in the business development and technology groups.

AnVil has raised $6.7 million to date from Applied Genomic Technology Capital, Mason Wells Biomedical Fund, and Seaflower Ventures. The company's Series B financing closed with $5.6 million last March, giving the company a post-money valuation of $9 million. A Series C round of between $5 million and $8 million is planned for sometime in the first quarter of 2003, with commitments in place from existing shareholders.

ActiveCyte was founded in late 1999 as a spinout from the Boston Consulting Group, and raised roughly $10 million in equity financing from Internet HealthCare Group, a healthcare holding company backed by Internet Capital Group. http://www.anvilinfo.com/

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