Acucela Strengthens Executive Team with Appointment of Chief Financial Officer.

SEATTLE -- Dr. Ryo Kubota, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer announced today the appointment of Michael J. Doty as Chief Financial Officer of Acucela Inc. Mr. Doty will be responsible for the financial and selected operational affairs of Acucela. Mr. Doty's breadth of experience -- from strategic planning to information systems; from mergers and acquisitions to investor relations -- emanates from a financial management career with companies across a range of sectors, including technology and health care.

"I am delighted to have Mike, a seasoned CFO experienced in leading highly successful public offerings, on Acucela's executive team," said Dr. Kubota. "His specific experience with a publicly traded biotech company that had an ophthalmology product will be directly relevant to our corporate mission. I am very confident that, with Mike on our team, we are well positioned to take Acucela's financial and business operations to the next level of sophistication."

Most recently, Mr. Doty served as Senior Vice President and CFO at QLT Inc. (NASDAQ:QLTI)(TSX:QLT), where he led the development of successful relationships with marketing and contract manufacturing partners, raised capital through a convertible offering, placed a highly effective foreign currency exposure management strategy, drove the implementation of new forecasting and budgeting systems, and corporate governance initiatives, including full compliance with all requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Prior to QLT, Mr. Doty was Senior Vice President and CFO at Inamed Corporation, a global supplier of medical devices, where he played leading roles in all aspects of a highly successful acquisition, including raising capital and forming strategic alliances. As Vice President of Finance and Planning at Reckitt & Colman, an international marketer of pharmaceutical products and consumer goods, Mr. Doty coordinated the analysis and integration of a major acquisition and developed the company's strategic planning function. With Hoke Inc., a multinational chemical industries supplier, Mr. Doty served as Senior Vice President and CFO, responsible for management information systems, worldwide human resources, and finance. He has also held posts at 3M and Honeywell.

Mr. Doty holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of St. Thomas, a Bachelor of Chemistry (BChem), a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from the University of Minnesota and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Mr. Doty begins his new position effective June 1, 2006.

About Acucela

Acucela Inc. is a biotech company discovering new drug therapies for eye diseases. Neurodegenerative retinal diseases such as macular degeneration, Stargardt's disease, retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma, significantly affect quality of life for over 50 million people worldwide, and there is a drastic lack of therapies available. Until now, ophthalmic drug discovery technologies have been very limited. Acucela uses proprietary OcuScreenTM disease-specific assays and technologies to identify and develop compounds that have safety and efficacy in treating these diseases. These technologies represent a tremendous breakthrough in ophthalmic drug discovery, and Acucela has used them to discover and develop pipeline compounds.