Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported)

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

1699 South Hanley Rd., St. Louis, MO 63144

(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)

(314) 647-1099

(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

ITEM 5.  OTHER EVENTS.

On October 16, 2000 Tripos Inc. announced that it had entered into a project agreement with LION bioscience AG to provide cheminformatics and data integration services for a technology development agreement between Lion bioscience and Bayer. Under the terms of the agreement between LION bioscience and Bayer AG, Bayer will pay $25 million in cheminformatics technology license fees, R&D development funding and milestones over thirty months ending March 2003. LION and Tripos will share the payments from Bayer. The press release announcing the collaboration between Tripos and LION bioscience is filed herewith as Exhibit 99.1.

Simultaneously, Tripos Inc. announced that it expected third quarter financial results to be lower than anticipated. The press release regarding expected third quarter 2000 financial results is filed herewith as Exhibit 99.2.

THIS CURRENT REPORT ON FORM 8-K AND THE EXHIBITS HERETO may contain certain statements that are forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. Words such as "expects", "anticipates", "projects", "estimates", "intends", "plans", "believes", variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and projections made by management and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual events, outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in such forward-looking statements. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward- looking statements are those set forth in Tripos' Form 10-K for 1999 and in subsequent SEC filings regarding matters such as: services and sales activities; capital needs; dependence on the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; competition; protection of proprietary technology; variations in quarterly operating results; dependence on collaborators, [including Lipha and LION]; key personnel; availability of scientific personnel; health care reform; and Tripos' investment in the common stock of Arena Pharmaceuticals. Tripos undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein.

ITEM 7.  FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND EXHIBITS.

(c) Exhibit Number

   Exhibit 99.1       Press Release dated October 16, 2000 regarding LION bioscience project agreement

   Exhibit 99.2       Press Release dated October 16, 2000 regarding expected third quarter financial results.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned duly authorized.

     INDEX TO EXHIBITS

EXHIBIT NO.       DESCRIPTION

99.1       Press Release dated October 16, 2000

99.2       Press Release dated October 16, 2000

The terms of the agreement between LION and Bayer cover the work included in their expanded agreement, and is valued at approximately $25 million, including an up-front payment, technology license fee for cheminformatics technology, R&D funding and milestone payments. Between now and March 2003, LION will share the total payments from Bayer with Tripos. The two companies will also retain all rights for the immediate resale of software systems and solutions developed during the collaboration. The project agreement between LION and Tripos is an extension of their long-standing working relationship that began in 1998. In February 2000 the companies announced a strategic alliance to develop a unified platform for data analysis and information management in the Life Sciences, with the goal to combine and merge bioinformatics with cheminformatics.

"The pressure to analyze the increasing volumes of targets and chemicals generated in both disciplines and to control costs is driving the need for more intelligent and integrated IT-solutions," said LION's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Friedrich von Bohlen. "We are delighted that our alliance with Tripos to develop a unified Life Sciences research platform, has received such a high validation from Bayer. Integrating cheminformatics into our knowledge management systems, through our collaboration with Tripos, is the next major component in the continued growth of our i-biology™ solution for the needs of the Life Science industry's whole R&D cycle."

LION will serve as the overall project manager and will coordinate the development of the novel informatics platform at Bayer. Working together, LION and Tripos will develop and install the new combined platform, linking the existing bioinformatics platform at Bayer with cheminformatics. This will integrate Tripos' MetaLayer enterprise-wide cheminformatics portal and application development environment with LION's global data integration system, SRS, which was successfully installed in 1999 as part of Bayer's existing partnership with LION. The integrated system will significantly enhance Bayer's capabilities in high-throughput screening experiment planning and data analysis, and in the generation of structure-activity relationships, to shorten discovery cycles and to reduce attrition rates of those pharmaceutical and plant protection candidates that are advanced to the development stage. The collaboration will also provide Bayer with a globally shared project tracking and knowledge management system to help increase the overall efficiency, and address the new challenges presented by the introduction of high throughput compound profiling techniques.

"The synergy between LION and Tripos creates a powerful blend of global data integration and informatics technologies that extends across the entire spectrum of life science research," said John P. McAlister, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Tripos. "With LION's leadership in Life Science informatics and knowledge management, and Tripos' leadership in chemical informatics, and its long history of innovation in computational chemistry and data analysis, we are developing an information management platform that will transform the entire R&D process for global Life Science companies such as Bayer. We further see the potential of bringing this pioneering technology to the whole industry, to help with their discovery programs."

In June 1999, LION and Bayer entered into a five-year, $100 million alliance to increase the speed and efficiency of Bayer's enterprise-wide gene and drug discovery efforts through the use of an information technology-based management system. Under the alliance LION is developing and applying new IT-systems for ultra high throughput identification and validation of 500 new drug targets, 70 new annotations on existing Bayer-owned gene targets and an undisclosed number of gene expression markers and SNPs. To date, LION is ahead of schedule, having delivered more than 140 protein targets, of which Bayer has moved 72 into further biological and chemical evaluation.

LION bioscience AG (http://www.lionbioscience.com) is a pioneer in the field of enterprise-wide R&D data analysis and information management systems and solutions for the life sciences and, ultimately, the healthcare industry.

To date, LION AG has established numerous alliances in informatics and genomics with leading Life Science research companies, including Aventis, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celera, DuPont, Glaxo Wellcome, Janssen, Merck Inc., Novartis, Pharmacia & Upjohn, SmithKline Beecham and Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals.

All statements in this press release that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. securities laws. Such statements are based on current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially from those projected because of factors such as uncertainties relating to technologies, product development, or manufacturing, market acceptance, cost or pricing of products, dependence on collaborations and partners, regulatory approvals, competition, intellectual property of others, or patent protection and litigation. These and other risk factors are discussed in LION's Registration Statement on Form F-1 declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 9, 2000. LION expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates, revisions or corrections to any forward-looking statements or historical information contained herein. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. For a discussion of factors that may cause results to differ, see Tripos' SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Tripos current report on Form 8-K in which this press release is included. Tripos expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates, revisions or corrections to any forward-looking statements or historical information contained herein.