Bangalore, India – February 2nd, 2007 – Aurigene Discovery Technologies Ltd (Aurigene), a Bangalore-based integrated drug discovery services company, announced today that it has entered into a discovery collaboration with Merck Serono International S.A (Merck Serono), a global biotechnology leader. The two companies have entered into an agreement to identify small molecule drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.