ARIAD Expands Product-Development Management Team.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARIA) today announced the appointment of John Loewy, Ph.D. as vice president, biostatistics and outcomes research, and Shirish Hirani, Ph.D. as vice president, development operations and planning. Both are newly created positions designed to enhance the company's product-development capabilities as ARIAD continues to advance its lead oncology product candidate, AP23573, through clinical development towards registration.

"Drs. Loewy and Hirani bring extensive pharmaceutical-industry experience and proven leadership skills to our R&D management team. Their primary focus will be on the late-stage clinical development of our novel mTOR inhibitor, AP23573, which is targeted to enter its initial registration trial in the first half of 2006," said Harvey J. Berger, M.D., chairman and chief executive officer of ARIAD.

Dr. Loewy will provide leadership of a newly created department responsible for biostatistics, data management and outcomes research, reporting to ARIAD's chief medical officer. Previously, Dr. Loewy held a similar post with Alkermes, Inc., as well as various biostatistics and research positions at Genetics Institute (Wyeth), Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Loewy earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biometry from the School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas, and his B.A. degree in mathematics and statistics from the State University of New York at Buffalo, New York.

Dr. Hirani will oversee ARIAD's development operations and planning functions and provide leadership to its product-development teams, reporting to ARIAD's chief development officer. Most recently, Dr. Hirani served as vice president, program management at Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc., where he also was the program executive of the Hunter Syndrome therapy project. He has held several management positions in drug development, program management and research operations at Dyax Corp., ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation and Genzyme Corporation. Dr. Hirani received his Ph.D. and B.Sc. degrees in biochemistry from Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, United Kingdom. He served as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego and Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation, both located in La Jolla, California.

About ARIAD

ARIAD is engaged in the discovery and development of breakthrough medicines to treat disease by regulating cell signaling with small molecules. The Company is developing a comprehensive approach to patients with cancer that addresses the greatest medical need - aggressive and advanced-stage cancers for which current treatments are inadequate. Medinol Ltd. also is developing stents and other medical devices that deliver ARIAD's lead cancer product candidate to prevent reblockage at sites of vascular injury following stent-assisted angioplasty. ARIAD has an exclusive license to pioneering technology and patents related to certain NF-(kappa)B treatment methods, and the discovery and development of drugs to regulate NF-(kappa)B cell-signaling activity, which may be useful in treating certain diseases. Additional information about ARIAD can be found on the web at http://www.ariad.com.

Some of the matters discussed herein are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, outcome of events, timing and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding the Company's ability to accurately estimate the timing and actual research and development expenses and other costs associated with the preclinical and clinical development and manufacture of our product candidates, the adequacy of our capital resources and the availability of additional funding, risks and uncertainties regarding our or our collaborator's ability to manufacture our product candidates on a commercial scale or to supply our product candidates to collaborators, risks and uncertainties regarding our ability to successfully enroll and conduct preclinical and clinical studies of product candidates, including our product candidate to treat various cancers described in this release and our collaborator's medical device product candidate to treat vascular disease, risks and uncertainties that clinical trial results at any phase of development may be adverse or may not be predictive of future results or lead to regulatory approval of any of our or any collaborator's product candidates, risks and uncertainties of third-party intellectual property claims relating to our and any collaborator's product candidates, and risks and uncertainties relating to regulatory oversight, the timing, scope, cost and outcome of legal proceedings, including litigation concerning our NF-(kappa)B patent portfolio, future capital needs, key employees, dependence on collaborators and manufacturers, markets, economic conditions, products, services, prices, reimbursement rates, competition and other risks detailed in the Company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including ARIAD's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as amended, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004. The information contained in this document is believed to be current as of the date of original issue. The Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this document to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in the Company's expectations, except as required by law.