1998-2004

November 30, 1999

SynChem Developed New Method for the Synthesis of Formamidine with Academic Researcher

Scientists at SynChem collaborated with researcher in University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Chemistry, and developed a new, rapid method for preparation of formamidine. This new method is potentially very useful in combinatorial chemistry because it is clean and fast reaction. SynChem will continue the application of this new reaction in combinatorial chemistry, especially in the synthesis of heterocycles.

November 1, 1999

SynChem Enlarge Its R & D Team

Dr. Pete Zhao jointed SynChem as Sr. Research Chemist. Dr. Zhao graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Pharmacy, and he is an expert in medicinal chemistry and combinatorial chemistry for both library design and synthesis. Because of its rapidly growing business in custom synthesis and contract research, SynChem will augment its staff with two to three Ph.D. level organic synthetic chemists. See details in the Job Section of its website.

October 1, 1999

SynChem Moves Its Offices to Des Plaines

SynChem has decided to relocate its office and laboratory from Chicago Tech Park to new facility in Des Plaines, Illinois. The new facility has a 2500 sq. ft. laboratory with seven hoods and a walk-in hood. It more than doubles the size of the old facility. This enhancement in capacity will allow SynChem to speed up services for its customers.

August 30, 1999

SynChem Scientists Developed a New Process to Prepare Chiral MOP

Scientists at SynChem has successfully developed a new, precise and efficient route to prepare an expensive chiral catalyst ligand, MOP, or 2-Methoxy-2’-diphenylphosphine-BINOL. This development will reduce the prices of both chiral MOP isomers to half of the original price. SynChem has filed a patent application and is going to publish its results in two to three months. This development is part of SynChem’s continuing efforts for supplying more high quality and inexpensive chiral building blocks and ligands.

July 30, 1999

SynChem Scientists Developed more Arylglyoxals as Building Blocks in Combinatorial Chemistry

Another ten new arylglyoxals will joint the new product line as combinatorial chemistry building blocks in SynChem, Inc. Arylglyoxals are very useful building blocks for the synthesis of heterocycles and other drug-like small organic molecules. A total eighteen arylglyoxals SynChem commercialized this year aim at helping medicinal chemists modify their new drug leads by combinatorial chemistry means.

June 30, 1999

Scientists from SynChem jointed American Peptide Symposium

Scientists from SynChem jointed a four-day event of American Peptide Symposium in Minneapolis, MI. They exchanged the research results with other scientists from the world. The most exciting to them in the symposium are meeting with the venders and customers, and exchanged ideas in the poster section with other chemists.

March 30, 1999

Scientists from SynChem jointed ACS National Meeting

Scientists from SynChem reported a synthesis of new chiral ligand at the 217th ACS National Meeting in Anaheim, California. The title of their paper is “Synthesis and Application of Chiral 2,5-Bi-Oxazoliylthiophene”. They reported a four-step synthesis toward this useful PyBox type molecule. Its applications include usage as chiral ligand, chemical shift reagent. The application of this ligand in catalytic asymmetric synthesis is under way in R & D team of SynChem.

January 10, 1999

Arylglyoxals as New Combinatorial Chemistry Building Blocks

Entering the last year of the century SynChem added one more service to combinatorial chemists. Its R & D team has successfully developed ten arylglyoxal products as SynChem’s first Combi-ToolBox for combinatorial chemists. Arylglyoxals are very useful building blocks for the syntheses of heterocycles and combinatorial chemistry in both solid and solution phase. Production team in SynChem has successful scaleup to kilograms quantities for these products. The R & D team currently is working on the second Combi-ToolBox, isocynides, which are widely used in both solid and solution phase with Ugi reaction.

December 30, 2000

SynChem Successfully Meet Its Targets in Year 2000

SynChem has a very successful year in 2000. It meets its business expectation in all aspects, from revenue, expanding business, and personal growing. SynChem plans to reinvest more than 50% of its earning of Year 2000 into the Company in Year 2001. The new expanding plan include the setup of a new kilo lab and analytical lab, establishing the new customer service plan, and continuing to develop new chemistry in CombiChem building blocks and asymmetric synthesis method.

November 30, 2000

SynChem Developed a New Series of CombiChem Building Blocks

A new series of CombiChem building blocks has been developed by Scientists at SynChem, and scheduled to deliver a total of 24 ketone ester products before March, 2001. This series of ketone esters are very useful for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and drug-like molecules. See our product section for detailed.

September 30, 2000

SynChem Continue Expand its Production Team

Because of the rapid business development SynChem continue to expand its Production Team. Four more chemists joined SynChem in September. SynChem will continue its effort to recruit qualified organic chemists in the first half of Year 2001, please see the job section.

August 30, 2000

Scientists at SynChem Joint Various Research Meetings

Scientists from SynChem joint Gordon Conference in Organic Synthesis in RI, Drug Discover Technologies Meeting in Boston and 220th ACS National Meeting in Washington, D.C. in July and August.

April 30, 2000

SynChem Scientists Joint ACS National Meeting in San Francisco

Scientists at SynChem joint 219th ACS National Meeting in San Francisco and presented their work in Organic Chemistry Division. The title of the poster is “Dication C(R1)-N(R2)2 synthons and their use in the Synthesis of Formamidines, Amines, and a-Aminonitriles” in the abstract ORG 130.

March 30, 2000

SynChem Expand its Production Team

Because of the rapid business development SynChem continue to grow its R & D Team and Production Team. There are three more chemists joining SynChem in March. SynChem will continue its effort to recruit qualified organic chemists in the first half of Year 2000.

December 30, 2001

SynChem Successfully Meet Its Targets in Year 2001.

SynChem has a very successful year in 2001. It meets its business expectation in all aspects, from revenue growing 20%, double its customers, and double its personals. SynChem maintains its earning in Year 2001 the same as Year 2000 even accounts its reinvestment for the new expanding for setting up its new kilo lab and its new Shanghai branch.

November 30, 2001

SynChem Developed Diketone Building Blocks

Scientists at SynChem developed diketone building blocks series and those products will be available by the end of 2001. It is another sets of combinatorial chemistry building blocks that are very useful for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and drug-like molecules. This is SynChem’s continuing effort to offer more new building blocks to medicinal chemists and combinatorial chemists. See our product section for detailed.

October 30, 2001

SynChem Starts Its New Branch Company in Shanghai, China

SynChem expanded its business service line to China. The integration of its Chicago main facilities and Shanghai facility will offer full custom chemical service for SynChem’s customers. SynChem (China), Ltd, located in the heart of Chinese life research center, Shanghai Academic of Sciences, will focus its services on FTE research projects and time insensitive custom synthesis projects, as SynChem, Inc. in Chicago focus its services on time sensitive custom synthesis projects and multi-step custom synthesis. The new lab in Shanghai is fully equipped as organic synthesis laboratory with rotary evaporators, analytical instruments including Waters HPLC and outside contractor facilities such as Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Shanghai Medical University. This new lab head by experiences researchers including one academic professor and two Ph.D. researchers, and it will extend SynChem’s research capacity to handle research- oriented projects at low cost and low risk that the customers needed.

September 30, 2001

SynChem Developed New Series Thiazole Building Blocks

Scientists at SynChem developed a series of thiazole building blocks and the products will be available by the end of 2001. It is another sets of combinatorial chemistry building blocks that are very useful for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and drug-like molecules. This is SynChem’s continuing effort to offer more new building blocks to medicinal chemists and combinatorial chemists. See our product section for detailed.

August 30, 2001

SynChem Scientists Joint ACS National Meeting in Chicago

Scientists at SynChem joint 222nd ACS National Meeting in Chicago and presented their work in Organic Chemistry Division. The titles of two posters are: “Novel Synthesis of Analog of Staurosporine” and “New Preparation of (R)-MOP and (S)-MOP”, respectively, in the abstract ORG 150 and ORG 406.

July 30, 2001

SynChem Start Its New Kilo Lab

SynChem process chemists move into newly setup state-of-art kilo lab. The new lab is equipped with three new walk-in hoods, three new bench hoods, two 20 Liter rotary evaporators, one 50 Liter rotary evaporator, 22 Liter, 50 Liter and 72 Liter reactors with analytical instruments including Waters HPLC. This new lab will increase SynChem’s capacity more than double and its capability to handle kilograms productions.

June 30, 2001

SynChem Developed New Series Cyano Ketone Building Blocks

A new series of CombiChem building blocks has been developed by Scientists at SynChem, and will be in market before October 2001. It is another sets of combinatorial chemistry building blocks that are very useful for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and drug-like molecules. This is SynChem’s continuing effort to offer more new building blocks to medicinal chemists and combinatorial chemists. See our product section for detailed.

May 30, 2001

SynChem Developed a New Series of CombiChem Building Blocks

A new series of CombiChem building blocks has been developed by Scientists at SynChem, and scheduled to deliver all diketo ester building blocks before October 2001. This series of diketo esters are very useful for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and drug-like molecules. See our product section for detailed.

April 28, 2001

SynChem Scientists Developed A New Process to Prepare Analog of Staurosporine

Scientists at SynChem successfully developed a new, precise and efficient route to prepare an analog of Staurosporine, a compound can be used for the treatment of heart, od vessel disease, allergies, cancer, and certain degenerative damage of the central nervous system. SynChem has filed a patent application and plans to publish its results in the coming months. This development is part of SynChem’s continuing research project supported by NIH SBIR Grant.

March 30, 2001

SynChem Scientists Joint ACS National Meeting in San Diego

Scientists at SynChem joint 221st ACS National Meeting in San Diego and presented their work in Organic Chemistry Division. The title of the poster is “New Preparation of (R)-MOP and (S)-MOP” in the abstract ORG 558.

February 28, 2001

SynChem Scientists Developed Another New Process to Prepare Chiral MOP

Scientists at SynChem successfully developed a second new, precise and efficient route to prepare an expensive chiral catalyst ligand, MOP, or 2-Methoxy-2’-diphenylphosphine-BINOL. This development will reduce the prices of both chiral MOP isomers to 1/3 of the original price. SynChem has filed a patent application and plans to publish its results in the coming months. This development is part of SynChem’s continuing efforts for supplying more high quality and inexpensive chiral building blocks and ligands.

January 30, 2001

SynChem Setup a New Kilo Lab in Its Des Plaines Facility

Because of the rapid expanding of its business, SynChem is setting up its new kilo lab at its Des Plaines facility. The new lab will be equipped with all three new walk-in hoods, three new bench hoods, two 20 Liter rotary evaporators, one 50 Liter rotary evaporator, 22 Liter, 50 Liter and 72 Liter reactors with analytical instruments including Waters HPLC. New lab will be functioning on April 1, 2001.

August 9, 2002

SynChem, Inc. wins Lilly’s 2002 Supplier Award

SynChem, Inc. was selected as one of Eli Lilly and Company's 2002 Supplier Award winners!(see detail from Lilly's website) There are 18 award winners for this year's suppliers throughout Lilly, including four in its research division. SynChem's representatives attended the awards presentation on August 8, 2002.

July 22, 2002

SynChem, Inc. and Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. signed a collaboration agreement for combinatorial chemistry

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: NBIX) and SynChem, Inc. today announced that they have signed an agreement for the design and synthesis of a combinatorial chemistry template around small molecules targeted at the super-family of receptors called G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Under the terms of the agreement, SynChem will combine its expertise in the synthesis of new combinatorial chemistry templates with Neurocrine’s computational methodology and high throughput synthesis to design and synthesize a library targeted at GPCRs. Both companies will contribute unique, proprietary chemical templates to the Collaboration. Neurocrine has several research programs based on GPCRs, which serve as targets for the identification of novel therapeutics. "We are delighted to initiate this combinatorial chemistry collaboration with Neurocrine. We look forward to achieving success on behalf of Neurocrine and expanding our list of partners for whom we can provide this very valuable service” said Dr. W. Paul Mar, President and CEO of SynChem, Inc. “This is an excellent way for us acquire the complex intermediates that we need to develop our GPCR screening library which has been designed specifically for GPCR’s activated by peptide ligands” said John Saunders, Ph.D. Vice President of Research Chemistry for Neurocrine Biosciences.

Neurocrine Biosciences is a leading neuroscience company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for neuropsychiatric, neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases and disorders. The Company's neuroscience, endocrine and immunology disciplines provide a unique biological understanding of the molecular interaction between central nervous, immune and endocrine systems for the development of therapeutic interventions for anxiety, depression, Alzheimer's disease, insomnia, stroke, malignant brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, obesity and diabetes.

SynChem, Inc. is a privately held contract research organization providing research services in all aspects of organic chemistry. SynChem complements the experience of its researchers with proprietary tools in organic chemistry and combinatorial chemistry building blocks.

Oct 10, 2003

SynChem (China), Ltd established its new laboratory in Shanghai, China.

SynChem (China), Ltd, a branch company of Chicago-based SynChem, Inc, established its new 12,500 sq. ft. laboratory in Shanghai, China. This expands the facility to a total of 25,000 sq. ft. and is fully equipped and functional laboratory capable of production to kilogram scale. By combining its Chicago-based laboratory and Shanghai-based laboratory SynChem can offer its full spectrum service to its customers, ranging from time-sensitive projects to cost-sensitive projects. Through integration of its two sites SynChem continues its commitment to become a powerhouse in an organic synthesis for its customers, including drug discovery, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies.

June 20, 2003

SynChem, Inc. and Helicon Therapeutics, Inc. sign collaborative research agreement for process research chemistry

Helicon Therapeutics, Inc. and SynChem, Inc. today announced that they have signed an agreement for the process research chemistry for one of Helicon’s development compounds. Under the terms of the agreement, SynChem will combine its expertise in the organic synthesis with Helicon’s proprietary drug lead for the treatment of disorders of cognitive function related to memory. Both companies will contribute unique, chemical expertise to the Collaboration. Helicon has a research program based on CREB activation, which serve as target for the identification of novel therapeutics for memory loss. "We are delighted to initiate this process research chemistry collaboration with Helicon. We look forward to achieving success on behalf of Helicon and growing our company with Helicon whom we can provide this very valuable organic chemistry service” said Dr. W. Paul Mar, President and CEO of SynChem, Inc. “We are pleased to work with SynChem on this project. They will make unique contributions to the scale-up of the synthesis and advancement of this candidate”, said John Tallman, Ph.D., President and CEO of Helicon Therapeutics.

About Helicon Therapeutics

HELICON THERAPEUTICS INC. is a pioneer in the development of therapies for memory-related disorders. Helicon, founded in 1997, is a privately held Company formed to understand the genetic basis of long-term memory formation and discover therapeutics to treat disorders of cognition. The scientific foundation and intellectual property of Helicon originated in the neuroscience program at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Helicon has developed technologies that can identify genes involved in memory formation, and identify and develop drugs that influence those genes that enhance memory and cognitive function. Its principal shareholders are Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, OSI Pharmaceuticals, and institutional and private investors in Europe and the United States. For more information, please visit www.helicontherapeutics.com

SynChem, Inc. is a privately held contract research organization providing research services in all aspects of organic chemistry. SynChem complements the experience of its researchers with proprietary tools in organic chemistry and combinatorial chemistry building blocks. For more information, please visit www.synchem.com. selected as one of Eli Lilly and Company's 2002 Supplier Award winners! There are 18 award winners for this year's suppliers throughout Lilly, including four in its research division. SynChem's representatives attended the awards presentation on August 8, 2002.

February 28, 2004

SynChem Biosciences, Inc., an affiliate of SynChem, Inc. setup

SynChem Biosciences, Inc. is setup on February 15, 2004 as a biological service-oriented business for biologists at drug discovery and pharmaceutical companies. SynChem Biosciences will integrate its custom biological service and contract research service through SynChem (China), Ltd also will copy SynChem’s successful business model in chemicals to biologicals. SynChem, Inc. at Chicago will be the financial investor for SynChem Biosciences. SynChem Biosciences offers the time-sensitive service and contract research service through for its customers.

February 18, 2004

SynChem, Inc. Announces the Appointment of Dr. Lin Yu To the Position of Vice President Business Development.

SynChem, Inc. today announced the appointment of Dr. Lin Yu to the position of Vice President - Business Development, and Dr. Yu will be CEO of a newly setup sibling company of SynChem, Inc., SynChem Biosciences, Inc. In this new position, Dr. Yu will be responsible for all aspects of business development including marketing, strategic planning, and be solely in charge of setting up SynChem Biosciences effective March 1, 2004. Dr. Yu brings with him over 10 years of pharmaceutical and drug discovery experience to SynChem. “We are delighted that we can attract someone with Lin’s excellent background and proven leadership skills which are an ideal fit for SynChem's future growth and development," said W. Paul Mar, Chief Executive Officer of SynChem, Inc. "His entrepreneurial attitude combined with his years of managing commercial organizations as well as developing pharmaceutical products will add significantly to SynChem's service-oriented business as we move up to next level of business model," Dr. Daniel Fang, President of SynChem, Inc. added. From 1999 to 2004, Dr. Yu was Vice President of Chemistry at Triad Therapeutics where he was a cofounder and a Member of the Executive Management Team. Previous to that he spent 7 years at La Jolla Pharmaceuticals as Group Leader and Research Scientist. In these prior positions, Dr. Yu has been responsible for the design of enzyme inhibitors, receptor agonists and antagonists targeted towards a range of disease targets. Under his leadership, two compounds have been developed and evaluated in clinical trials. Dr. Yu received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from University of California at San Diego and his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Zhongshan University.