William O. Wilkison, Ph.D., President
Yuan-Di Halvorsen, Ph.D., VP R&D
Peter Pieraccini, Business Manager

Product Line or Service — As the core of the company’s platform technology, Zen-Bio has developed and mass-produces a human cultured adipocyte cell system that retains many of the characteristics of mature adipocytes found in the human body.

Technology/Proprietary Rights — Drug-induced Adipose Secreted Factors (Filed 12/97), Osteoblast Differentiation (Filed 12/97), Cell Culture Transport System (Issued 3/98), Improved Human Adipocyte Culture system (Filed 5/98), Adipocyte-selective Calcium Antagonists (Filed 4/98), Adipocyte cDNA Array (To be Filed 6/98), Leptin ELISA (To be Filed 6/98).

Market Opportunities — By exploiting its unique platform technology of human adipocyte biology, Zen-Bio is in the early stages of developing intellectual property for detection and treatment of obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. The pharmaceutical industry spends nearly $20 billion annually to develop alliances with emerging biotechnology companies like Zen-Bio. By utilizing screening, gene/protein databases, and innovative target identification with its platform human adipocyte technology, Zen-Bio is leveraging its expertise in adipocyte biology to generate intellectual property for outlicensing to or co-development with large pharmaceutical companies. A pertinent example is the licensing of the leptin gene (an adipocyte-specific gene) from Rockefeller University to Amgen for $90 million dollars in upfront and milestone fees.

Marketing/Sales and Distribution — We have created the human adipocyte market and have built a corporate network of over 75 customers. To increase our volume, we have a marketing and distribution agreement with Stratagene, a biotechnology supply company with a well-developed marketing and sales group. We are also negotiating with a major cell culture company for additional proprietary products to be distributed.

Competition — At the present time, Zen-Bio, Inc. enjoys pioneer status in the human adipocyte field. Many companies are using mouse adipocyte systems to attempt to discover drugs. No company is solely focused on the use of human adipocyte biology to exploit these targets. One nascent company (Adipogenics) is starting an adipocyte biology program for discovery. We believe others will enter this arena to take advantage of the largely uncharted area of human adipocyte biology. Zen-Bio, Inc. has a considerable edge in scientific expertise, lead time, proprietary information, tissue sources, and customer/collaborator contacts. We need to exploit this lead NOW to maximize our market domination.