Anadys Achieves Research Milestone in Drug Discovery Collaboration With Amgen.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

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SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 9, 2004

Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Anadys") announced today that it has achieved the first research milestone in its collaboration with Amgen Inc. The collaboration utilizes Anadys' proprietary affinity based screening technology ATLAS(TM) against both Anadys' and Amgen's compound collections to discover novel compounds against a specific target provided by Amgen.

Under the terms of the collaboration that was formed in February 2003, Anadys is designing, configuring, and running an ATLAS(TM) assay to screen compound collections against the target provided by Amgen. Financial terms of the collaboration include an upfront payment, R&D funding, and potential for milestone payments and royalties. Amgen has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize any products resulting from compounds discovered in the collaboration.

"We are very pleased to be collaborating with Amgen and are delighted to have achieved the first research milestone under the collaboration," said Steve Worland, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Anadys.

About Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.anadyspharma.com) is a biopharmaceutical company committed to advancing patient care by discovering, developing, and commercializing novel and powerful small molecule, anti-infective medicines for the treatment of chronic viral infections, including HCV, and bacterial infections. Anadys integrates biology and chemistry into a seamless, feedback-based, iterative process to facilitate rapid and successful drug discovery. The approach is designed to advance a strong and continual pipeline of drug candidates into the clinic.

For more information, please visit www.anadyspharma.com.

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements." Such statements include, but are not limited to, references to activities expected to occur in connection with the collaboration between Anadys and Amgen. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results of Anadys Pharmaceuticals to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences include results of future research activities under the collaboration, risks associated with any future clinical development of product candidates that may result under the collaboration and Amgen's future development and/or commercialization efforts with respect to any resulting product candidates or products resulting from the collaboration. This and other factors that may cause actual results to differ are more fully discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Anadys' Registration Statement on Form S-1 on file with the SEC. Anadys is providing this information as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.