Celera Genomics signs up France's Genset as a database user

Celera Genomics says that France's Genset has signed a multi-yearsubscription agreement to use its integrated database products, bioinformatics systems and other discovery tools, accessing its products through the web-based Celera Discovery System. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Craig Venter, Celera's president, said that the agreement with Genset is an example of the ways that his company intends to "build the capabilities necessary to participate in the drug discovery and development process." His counterpart at the French firm, Andre Pernet, stated that "the quantity and quality of the data in Celera's databases should enable us to accelerate and reduce the costs of our genomics research."