Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. and Mixture Sciences Inc. Announce License Agreement.

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 2002

Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. (OTCBB:ALLP) and Mixture Sciences Inc. announced today that they have entered into an exclusive license agreement for Mixture Sciences to acquire all rights to a proprietary immunotherapy platform technology developed by Astral Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliance.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mixture Sciences will provide an undisclosed license fee and future royalties to Alliance. The parties also intend to explore the possibility of combining their entire technologies into a single entity over the next several months.

Astral's technology platform, Epitope-based T-cell Immunotherapy (E.T.I.), is being developed for use in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, and for anti-infection and anti-cancer vaccines. E.T.I. uses proprietary engineered molecules to affect T-cells, which are involved in immune reactions. E.T.I. is intended to selectively influence the body's response to disease by eliminating toxic T-cells, or amplifying desirable T-cells, while leaving the rest of the immune system untouched.

As reported in the Oct. 15, 2002 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, E.T.I. incorporates the use of synthetic genetic material, double-stranded RNA "motifs," to increase the immune response to tumors and microbes. This response may trigger rejection of tumor cells and infectious materials, enabling potential therapeutic applications in the areas of cancer, infectious diseases and biodefense.

Mixture Sciences uses a combination of proprietary and in-licensed synthetic combinatorial technologies for the discovery and optimization of therapeutic and diagnostic candidates for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and infectious diseases, including Lyme Disease and HIV/AIDS. These approaches have been validated and used by members of the academic and corporate community over the past decade. A recent review of this work was reported in the Sept. 1, 2002 issue of the Journal of Immunological Methods.

"The Astral program has been a valuable adjunct to Alliance's primary work with perfluorochemicals and surfactants," said Duane J. Roth, chairman and CEO of Alliance. "We are pleased to join with Mixture Sciences to continue development of the promising E.T.I. technology. Mixture Sciences will provide funding and additional technical expertise to help accelerate our progress."

"This new partnership with Alliance Pharmaceutical is in alignment with our business plan to develop treatments for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, as well as anti-infection and anti-cancer vaccines," said Richard A. Houghten, president and CEO of Mixture Sciences. "We are looking forward to combining Astral's E.T.I. technology with our expertise in combinatorial chemistry and immunology."

About Alliance

Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. has been developing therapeutic and diagnostic products based on its perfluorochemical and surfactant technologies, in addition to the Astral immunotherapy platform technology. On Nov. 25, 2002, Alliance announced that it has signed a term sheet for Photogen Technologies Inc. to acquire Imagent(R) (perflexane lipid microspheres), an ultrasound contrast agent that was recently approved by the FDA for marketing in the United States. Oxygent(TM) (perflubron emulsion), an intravenous oxygen carrier, is being developed in the United States, Canada and Europe in conjunction with Baxter Healthcare Corp. Additional information about Alliance is available on Alliance's Web site at www.allp.com.

About Mixture Sciences

Mixture Sciences Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company specializing in biomedical research and drug discovery. As a worldwide leader in the use of mixture-based chemical libraries, Mixture Sciences is committed to developing, improving, patenting and in-licensing new technologies in order to provide the most cost efficient methods for identifying and exploiting ligands. Additional information about Mixture Sciences is available at www.mixturesciences.com.

Except for historical information, the matters set forth in this release are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth herein, including the availability of funding for development, the uncertainties associated with the conduct of preclinical or clinical studies and the timing or ability to investigate scientific data. Alliance refers you to cautionary information contained in documents the Company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the last Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, and those risk factors set forth in the most recent registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-72844) and Form S-4 (File No. 333-49676). Alliance is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any obligation) to update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.