[Federal Register: October 4, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 191)]
[Notices]               
[Page 59271]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr04oc04-104]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Antitrust Division

 
Notice Pursuant to the National Cooperative Research and 
Production Act of 1993--the Society for Biomolecular Screening, Inc. 
(``SBS'')

    Notice is hereby given that, on September 1, 2004, pursuant to 
section 6(a) of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 
1993, 15 U.S.C. 4301 et seq. (``the Act''), The Society for 
Biomolecular Screening, Inc. (``SBS'') has filed written notifications 
simultaneously with the Attorney General and the Federal Trade 
Commission disclosing (1) the name and principal place of business of 
the standards development organization and (2) the nature and scope of 
its standards development activities. The notifications were filed for 
the purpose of invoking the Act's provisions limiting the recovery of 
antitrust plaintiffs to actual damages under specified circumstances. 
Pursuant to section 6(b) of the Act, the name and principal place of 
business of the standards development organization is: The Society for 
Biomolecular Screening, Inc. Danbury, CT. The nature and scope of SBS' 
standard development activities are: Many science-based industries have 
implemented a High Throughput Screening (HTS) approach for discovery 
activities. HTS requires that automated devices and full robotic 
systems be used for this work. These devices and systems cost from tens 
of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. The basic tool for this 
work is the microtiter plate (MTP) and as such, it is economically 
critical that these devices/systems work in a seamless manner with this 
tool as supplied by different manufacturers. However, each manufacturer 
had originally developed MTPs with slightly different dimensions and 
features to the extent that these plates performed poorly with 
automation. Laboratory users found it frustrating to try to use 
different plates with their equipment and often experienced significant 
financial losses when doing so. Manufacturers of automated devices 
tried to build in features that allowed for defining different plates 
from different manufacturers but there was only so much variation that 
could be accommodated and these changes were driving costs upwards. In 
1995, The Society for Biomolecular Screening, Inc. formed a working 
group that brought together all of the interested parties, 
(manufacturers of MTPs, automated device manufacturers and users) to 
establish standards for microtiter plates that would provide reliable 
use with all automated equipment and robotics. These standards need to 
address the various densities of the MTP including 96, 384, and 1536 
since it would be expected that the same equipment could work with 
various formats but not necessarily all formats to contains costs.

Dorothy B. Fountain,
Deputy Director of Operations, Antitrust Division.
[FR Doc. 04-22158 Filed 10-1-04; 8:45 am]

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