Tripos Sells Discovery Unit

Tripos completed plans for its liquidation last week with the announcement that it will sell its Discovery Research business in Bude, England, to Provid Pharmaceuticals for $2 million.

Provid, based in North Brunswick, N.J., is a drug discovery service company engaged in the design, identification, and optimization of lead compounds for pharmaceutical development. The company provides medicinal chemistry research services to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries and will, according to Tripos, retain the staff of the Bude laboratories.

The sale is the second step in Tripos' dissolution as a publicly traded company. Late last year, Tripos announced the sale of its Discovery Informatics business in St. Louis to Vector Capital, in San Francisco, for $25.6 million.

Tripos CEO John McAlister says the sale to Vector, which specializes in information technology buyouts, will allow the informatics business to operate as a private company "with greater access to growth capital." Tripos estimates that $6 million to $12 million will be available to common stockholders following completion of both sales.