Clarient Obtains Exclusive License for Natural Selection, Inc.

Clarient Obtains Exclusive License for Natural Selection, Inc. Software to Develop Novel Cancer Markers

Nov 30 2006, 2:30 AM EST

PRNEWSWIRE

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Clarient, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLRT), a technology and services resource for pathologists, oncologists and the pharmaceutical industry, and Natural Selection, Inc. (NSI), a leader in the development of computational intelligence methods, today announced a 3-year agreement for in vitro diagnostics development in oncology. The two companies are partnering to develop innovative diagnostics to improve cancer detection. The agreement grants Clarient an exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable license to apply the NSI algorithms to specific diagnostic analysis and services.

Ron Andrews, Clarient's President and CEO, commented, "The advent of personalized medicine and the resulting gap between therapeutics and diagnostics has fueled a 'land grab' in the area of cancer biomarkers that will potentially increase the market for cancer diagnostics by as much as $1 billion in the coming 3 to 5 years. Partnering with NSI provides Clarient with proprietary access to an important intellectual asset. This key tool will aid in the development of clinically relevant biomarkers either in-house or through collaborations with biotech firms as well as academic medical centers. We expect the resulting novel markers to produce incremental recurring revenues generated by Clarient directly through its laboratory services group as well as through licensing agreements with third parties."

Andrews continued, "After a thorough evaluation of available technologies, we believe that NSI is the best partner for Clarient. NSI's biological and advanced mathematical knowledge integrated with Clarient's medical experience positions Clarient to bridge the gap between large, cumbersome data and a usable panel of cancer tests. We are very excited about this collaboration and plan to offer these services to biotechnology companies as an important tool for the development and commercialization of novel cancer markers for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy selection."

"We're pleased to be assisting Clarient in developing successful computational intelligence applications that meet Clarient's goals for generating improved cancer diagnostics and better tools for pathologists and oncologists," said Dr. Gary Fogel, Vice President of Natural Selection, Inc. "Our proprietary methods could help physicians make better, more informative decisions for their patients."

About Natural Selection, Inc.

Natural Selection, Inc. was founded in 1993 by Dr. Lawrence J. Fogel, a pioneer of evolutionary computation. The company specializes in applying this technology to solve problems in medicine and biochemistry, such as image analysis, pharmaceutical design, structure prediction, and sequence analysis, as well as other personalized medical applications. NSI also supports a variety of defense and other industry applications.

About Clarient

Clarient combines innovative technologies with world class expertise to assess and characterize cancer. Clarient's mission is to provide technologies, services and the critical information to improve the quality and reduce the cost of patient care as well as accelerating the drug development process. The Company's principal customers include pathologists, oncologists, hospitals and biopharmaceutical companies.

The Company was formed in 1996 to develop and market the ACIS(R) Automated Cellular Imaging System, an important advance in slide-based testing. The rise of individualized medicine as the new direction in oncology led the Company in 2004 to expand its business model to provide the full range of leading diagnostic technologies such as flow cytometry and molecular testing in-house, creating a state-of-the-art commercial cancer laboratory and providing the most advanced oncology testing and drug development services available. Clarient is a Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. partner company. For more information, visit www.clarientinc.com.

About Safeguard

Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) builds value in high-growth, revenue-stage information technology and life sciences businesses. Safeguard provides growth capital as well as a range of strategic, operating and management resources to our partner companies. The company participates in expansion financings, corporate spin-outs, management buyouts, recapitalizations, industry consolidations and early-stage financings. For more information about Safeguard, please visit www.safeguard.com.

The statements herein regarding Clarient, Inc. contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainty. Future events and the Company's actual results could differ materially from the results reflected in these forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to the Company's ability to successfully develop biomarkers either in-house or in collaboration with other parties, the Company's ability to market and generate revenues from biomarkers, the acceptance of biomarkers by biotechnology or other companies as tools for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy selection, the Company's ability to compete with other technologies and with emerging competitors in cell imaging and dependence on third parties for collaboration in developing new tests and in distributing the Company's systems and tests performed on the system, and risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, reports on Form 8-K and annual reports on Form 10-K. Recent experience with respect to laboratory services, new contracts for instrument sales, revenues and results of operations may not be indicative of future results for the reasons set forth above.

The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other information contained in this document.