Bear Stearns Health Innoventures Closes $212 Million Fund.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2001

Seeks to fund companies that deliver

better medicine or deliver medicines better

Bear Stearns Health Innoventures L.P., a venture capital fund established to invest in early- to mid-stage companies with platform technologies designed to increase productivity across the health care value chain, announced today that it has closed with $212 million in committed capital.

Commenting on the closing, Doni Fordyce, President and Chief Executive of Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc. (BSAM), said, "We are thrilled with the success of Health Innoventures. This closing displays that, in spite of very challenging market conditions for new venture funds, Health Innoventures presents investors with a highly compelling formula: a team of extremely talented health care and venture capital professionals seeking the best innovations in the industry at a time of extraordinary progress in medical technology."

The fund's partners are Michael Aspinwall, former co-head of health care investing at GE Equity; Dr. Fritz Buhler, former Head of Global Clinical Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Hoffmann-La Roche; Elizabeth Czerepak, former vice president for business development and executive board member of BASF Pharma/Knoll; Dr. Jurgen Drews, former President of Global Research and Development and member of the Executive Committee at Hoffmann-La Roche; and Dr. Stefan Ryser, former head of research staff at Hoffmann-La Roche. Prior to Health Innoventures, Drs. Buhler, Drews and Ryser were founding partners of International Biomedicine Management Partners, a $70 million biotechnology venture fund.

Health Innoventures seeks to fund the best investments in health care with emphasis on biotechnology and information technology companies developing platforms to reverse the "innovation deficit" in the pharmaceutical industry and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of medicine.

Health Innoventures is building on the long and successful record of the Bear Stearns health care equity research and investment banking groups. For the past decade, Bear Stearns has been one of the leading underwriters and advisors to companies in the biopharmaceutical, medical devices and health care services sectors. The firm recently advised Pharmacia & Upjohn and Warner Lambert in two of the three largest mergers in the industry's history.

BSAM, the asset management subsidiary of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc., manages $19.7 billion in assets across a wide spectrum of asset classes and sectors. BSAM's capabilities include equity strategies, core and specialty fixed income and high-return alternative investment strategies, such as hedge funds, private equity and venture capital. Its global client base includes corporations, public funds, endowments, foundations, Taft-Hartley plans, insurance companies, individuals and family groups. In addition to its separate account, wrap and alternative investments businesses, BSAM is a registered investment advisor for 11 mutual fund portfolios.

Founded in 1923, The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (NYSE: BSC) is the parent company of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., a leading investment banking and securities trading and brokerage firm serving governments, corporations, institutions and individuals worldwide. With approximately $25.8 billion in total capital, the company's business includes corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, institutional equities and fixed income sales, trading and research, private client services, derivatives, foreign exchange and futures sales and trading, asset management and custody services. Through Bear, Stearns Securities Corp., it offers prime broker and broker dealer clearing services, including securities lending. Headquartered in New York City, the company has approximately 11,000 employees located in domestic offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Juan; and an international presence in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Lugano, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. For additional information about Bear Stearns, please visit our Web site at http://www.bearstearns.com.