In hopes of redefining the fundamental process of pharmaceutical lead discovery, on January 25 chemistry-based drug discovery company ArQule (Woburn, MA) acquired privately-held Camitro (Menlo Park, CA; Cambridge, UK), a company that uses in silico modeling to predict how small molecule drug candidates' chemical structures affect the molecules' absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination, and toxicology (ADMET) in the body. ArQule issued 3.4 million shares of stock and $1.7 million in cash for the purchase, valuing the deal when it closed on February 1 at approximately $85 million. According to Ivonne Marondel, analyst at Gerard Klauer Mattison (New York), Camitro's high-throughput ADMET modeling will greatly accelerate the drug development from ArQule's 250 targets, as well as generate an estimated $35 million from software sales by the end of 2002. “This merger is kind of a turbo charger for ArQule,” says Marondel. “Looking at other combichem companies, I think they really have an edge here.” GlaxoSmithKline (London) recently became a client of Camitro, which expects two more large pharmas to join the mix soon.