We are pleased to announce that ACRONET Corporation (Head office: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, president & CEO: Mr Hisashi Uematsu, hereafter referred to as ACRONET) and Richmond Pharmacology Ltd (Head office: St George’s University of London, England, UK, managing director: Dr Jörg Täubel, hereafter referred to as Richmond) recently executed the Japanese representation agreement. Hereafter ACRONET, as the Japanese representative of Richmond, will start to assist Japanese pharmaceutical companies prior to
and during the conduct of their early phase clinical studies by Richmond.

The UK has an established reputation as the preferred country for drug development in the EU. This is because the UK has a stable environment supporting drug discovery through all clinical phases due to the proactive promotion of drug development by the government. Also, due to the established regulatory environment, the UK provides an ideal location for conducting clinical studies and efficient new drug applications. Consequently, the UK has traditionally produced many excellent companies related to pharmaceutical drug development. Richmond Pharmacology, as an excellent CRO in the UK, has to date supported many pharmaceutical companies, including Japanese Pharmaceutical companies.

Because of this situation, ACRONET and Richmond executed the representation agreement to support Japanese pharmaceutical companies for there early phase clinical studies. Hereafter, as a Japanese representative of Richmond, ACRONET will promote
co-marketing activities together with Richmond and act as a contact and a liaison point in Japan to assist Japanese Pharmaceutical companies for their successful Phase I and POC studies, aiming for reducing cost and shortening period for drug development. We will commence sales and marketing promotion for RPL services from September 2009 and hope to achieve annual sales ca JPY 200 million in the total amount of sighed contracts.