The business model of EtnaLead has been derivated from a model that has been developed in the IT services for a decade, that can be called the "right cost model". It is based on a high qualty level on the one hand: •A high technological level: our laboratories are equiped with all the technological resources needed for early drug discovery, and will enter in a validation process of this excellency with the aim to obtain in 2012 the accreditation "good laboratory practices" for a few of the services proposed, •A pluridisciplinary high level task force, based both on experimented scientists and managers from the University of Catania and/or with an international background, and on young people selected for their high potential and their ability to work in at least three languages (English, Italian and French are required), •Strong geographical roots, with a very strong support from the University of Catania, that will play its role of talents provider: students from the University will have opportunities for trainings, PhDs, Post docs, etc...

ETNALED s.r.l

And on the other hand on a very strict monitoring of the services prices:•A "pure player" position: a commercial task force can represent a very heavy cost, providing no added value to the customers. We have made the choice to develop our business using strategic alliances and networking (in real life and online), and to use the benefits of this "cost killing" to keep reasonable prices.

•A skills development center: except for the management team, all the people at EtnaLead have been hired by the way of a training period or a PhD cycle. This a way for us to build a young and dynamic team, that will internally develop its skills, and that represent not a too heavy cost.

SERVICESTo fulfill your individual needs, our solution designers tailor for you the best combination of expertise, services and tools. Specificity of each project: our international and multidisciplinary team supports you in designing your solution, and assures you that the proposed work-plan satisfies your requests, in a personalized and unique way. In silico methods allows you, before making in vitro tests, to save time, reduce costs, and quickly achieve early discovery.

We have developed a set of software solutions based on innovative data mining and 3D modeling technologies.

These methods predict complex biological phenomena while providing better results than competing solutions (benchmarks are available).

In vitro tests are becoming more and more standardized. Besides to propose some innovative technologies, we decided to implement a strategy of "right cost", i.e. the best price for a high-quality service.

Grid-Enabled High-Throughput In Silico Screening Against Influenza A Neuraminidase

Hurng-Chun Lee; Salzemann, J.; Jacq, N.; Hsin-Yen Chen; Li-Yung Ho; Merelli, I.; Milanesi, L.; Breton, V.; Lin, S.C.; Ying-Ta Wu; Acad. Sinica, Taipei NanoBioscience, IEEE Transactions on Issue Date: Dec. 2006 Volume: 5 Issue:4 On page(s): 28

• Drug Discovery• “In the end, J&J's grid should make drug discovery faster and more

economical. It should also enhance patient safety and fine-tune therapeutics.” – Johnson & Johnson PRD

• " We’ve saved at least $2 million based on the 2700 seats we have currently." – Novartis

• “Ease of deployment and availability of applications were strong selling points for us. We also knew from Univa UD’s other enterprise deployments that massive scaling and security capabilities were already proven.” – Sanofi-Aventis

• Due to the recent progress in the integration of structural genomics, including homology modeling and experimental 3D structure determination of relevant drug discovery targets, the impact of structure-based in silico screening techniques is increasing rapidly within pharmaceutical industry.

• High-Throughput Docking (HTD) have matured during the last years to become reliable, inexpensive, and fast method for hit and lead finding which complement traditional High-Throughput Screening. Browsing among compound libraries, HTD aims for the focused selection of hit candidates which most likely bind to the active site of a target, based on the 3D structural hypotheses of ligand-receptor interactions provided by structural biology.

• Only compounds with the highest docking score, which reflects the complementarity with the active site, are then actually biologically tested for confirmation. There are many possible cases in which HTD can contribute to the drug discovery process, from hit identification in early stage of a project to lead finding when diverse and targeted virtual combinatorial libraries are screened to improve the affinity and/or ADME profile of a known active compound.

Builiding Tomorrow’ s Enterprise

ETNALEAD-GRID

VIRTUAL SCREENING MOLECULAR DYNAMICS

• Most major pharmaceutical companies have employed grid computing to expand their compute resources with the intention of minimizing additional financial expenditure. Historically, one of the issues restricting widespread utilization of the grid resources in molecular modeling is the limited set of suitable applications amenable to coarse-grained parallelization.

• Recent advances in grid infrastructure technology coupled with advances in application research and redesign will enable fine-grained parallel problems, such as quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics, which were previously inaccessible to the grid environment. This will enable new science as well as increase resource flexibility to load balance and schedule existing workloads.

• Cloud Computing: A Drug Discovery Game Changer?

• Cloud computing has the potential to transform drug discovery in many areas – heralding the dawn of no-compromise computer-aided drug;

• discovery and making effective virtual screening a reality.

Innovations in Pharmaceutical Technologywww.iptonline.com