Arthur S. Kirsch Appointed to POZEN's Board of Directors.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2004

POZEN Inc. (NASDAQ: POZN) announced today the appointment of Arthur S. Kirsch to its board of directors. Mr. Kirsch will fill the seat on the Board vacated by Jacques F. Rejeange, who retired from the Board in January 2004. Mr. Kirsch will also serve on the audit committee of the board of directors.

POZEN chairman, president, and chief executive officer John R. Plachetka, Pharm.D., said, "Arthur has over 25 years of experience working in the equity capital markets and has extensive knowledge of the healthcare and life sciences fields. His experience and strong business acumen will be an asset to POZEN's continued growth. We look forward to having him on POZEN's board."

"I want to thank Jacques for his many contributions to POZEN. He provided strong leadership and insightful guidance to POZEN as an active and valued board member and has been instrumental in contributing to POZEN's growth and development," said Dr. Plachetka.

Mr. Kirsch is a founding member and managing director of Vector Securities, LLC, an investment and merchant banking firm. Prior to this position, he held senior leadership positions at Prudential Vector Healthcare Group, a unit of Prudential Securities, Inc., and at Vector Securities International, Inc. Before joining Vector in 1995, Mr. Kirsch was president and chief executive officer of NatWest Securities U.S. and director of the Global Equity Division of Drexel Burnham Lambert.

POZEN is a pharmaceutical company committed to developing therapeutic advancements for diseases with unmet medical needs where the Company can improve efficacy, safety and/or patient convenience. Since its inception, POZEN has developed what it believes to be one of the largest and most advanced product pipelines in the field of migraine. POZEN has development and commercial alliances with GlaxoSmithKline, Xcel Pharmaceuticals, and Nycomed. The company's common stock is traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol "POZN". For detailed company information, including copies of this and other press releases, see POZEN's website: www.pozen.com.

Statements included in this press release that are not historical in nature are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should be aware that our actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, our failure to successfully commercialize our product candidates; costs and delays in the development and/or FDA approval, or the failure to obtain such approval of our product candidates; uncertainties in clinical trial results or the timing of such trials, resulting in, among other things, an extension in the period over which we recognize deferred revenue or our failure to achieve milestones that would have provided us with revenue; our inability to maintain or enter into, and the risks resulting from our dependence upon, collaboration or contractual arrangements necessary for the development, manufacture, commercialization, marketing, sales and distribution of any products; competitive factors; our inability to protect our patents or proprietary rights and obtain necessary rights to third party patents and intellectual property to operate our business; our inability to operate our business without infringing the patents and proprietary rights of others; general economic conditions; the failure of any products to gain market acceptance; our inability to obtain any additional required financing; technological changes; government regulation; changes in industry practice; and one-time events, including those discussed herein and in our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2004 under "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." We do not intend to update any of these factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.