December 24/Biotech Business Week -- Redpoint Bio Corporation, a company developing ingredients to improve the taste of pharmaceutical, food and beverage products, announced that it has signed a research agreement with The Coca-Cola Company to develop proprietary technology for use in non-alcoholic beverages.

Under terms of the one-year agreement, for a six-month period beginning on the effective date of the agreement, Redpoint has granted Coca-Cola an exclusive right to negotiate to extend and expand the collaboration into a broader, multi-year research, development and commercialization program.

"We are extremely pleased to have established this new research and technology development collaboration with industry leader, The Coca-Cola Company -- Redpoint Bio's second food industry collaboration signed in 2007," said Ray Salemme, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Redpoint Bio. "We believe this agreement is a further endorsement of Redpoint Bio's unique capabilities for the discovery and development of beverage technology. We look forward to working with The Coca-Cola Company team."

Grant DuBois, Ph.D., director, Ingredient & Product Sciences for The Coca-Cola Company, noted, "We believe that Redpoint Bio's extensive knowledge of taste science, coupled with their full suite of discovery tools, can contribute to the development of new technology for use in existing and future non-alcoholic beverages."

From the January 7, 2008, Prepared Foods e-Flash