Bioenvision Presents at Bio VentureForum West and Announces Investor Relations Initiative.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 2003

Bioenvision, Inc. (Amex:BIV) today announced that its Chairman and CEO, Dr. Christopher B. Wood, will be presenting at the Bio VentureForum West, the leading West Coast investor conference for venture-stage life science companies, on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 in San Francisco, CA.

Bio VentureForum West will bring together one hundred of the most promising early- and late-stage biotechnology product and platform companies and an audience comprising the biotechnology industry's most active and prominent venture capital firms.

Bioenvision's management is preparing to launch a series of events intended to update the financial and investor community on the company's programs and latest initiatives.

"With our recent listing on the American Stock Exchange and notable increase in share price, we believe there has been a significant raise in our retail stockholder base," said Bioenvision's Director of Finance, David P. Luci. "This management initiative is designed to enhance our communications with our current and potential investors."

Bioenvision's Commercial Director, Hugh Griffith, and members of the company's operating team will be participating in numerous upcoming events as part of the comprehensive development program surrounding clofarabine and Modrenal. Bioenvision will be presenting data at the San Antonio International Breast Cancer Symposium and at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Diego in December.

About Clofarabine

Clofarabine (Cl-F-ara-A, CAFdA) is a second-generation purine nucleoside antimetabolite. Nucleoside analogs are antimetabolites that affect DNA synthesis. Clofarabine was rationally designed to combine many of the favorable properties of the two most commonly used nucleoside analogs, Fludarabine Fludara(R) by Schering AG (NYSE: SHR) and Cladribine, Leustatin(R) by Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), but is reported to have greater potency at damaging the DNA of Leukemia cells than these other agents. (Blood, "Mitochondrial Toxity of Deoxyadenoside Analogs", November 15, 2000, Volume 96, Number 10). In a single center Phase II study of Clofarabine in patients with refractory AML, 42% of the patients had a complete response rate (CR) and a further 13% had a partial response (CRp). ILEX has obtained the right to develop clofarabine in the United States and Canada from Bioenvision, which maintains its rights to develop clofarabine outside of those areas.

About Bioenvision

Bioenvision's (Amex:BIV) primary focus is the acquisition, development and distribution of compounds and technologies for the treatment of cancer. Bioenvision has a broad pipeline of products for the treatment of cancer, including: clofarabine (in co-development with ILEX Oncology, Inc.), Modrenal(R) (for which Bioenvision has obtained regulatory approval for marketing in the United Kingdom for the treatment of post-menopausal breast cancer following relapse to initial hormone therapy), and other products in clinical trials. Bioenvision is also developing anti-infective technologies, including the OLIGON technology; an advanced biomaterial that has been incorporated into various FDA approved medical devices. For more information on Bioenvision please visit our Web site at www.bioenvision.com.

Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking" statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Because these statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Specifically, factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: risks associated with preclinical and clinical developments in the biopharmaceutical industry in general and in Bioenvision's compounds under development in particular; the potential failure of Bioenvision's compounds under development to prove safe and effective for treatment of disease; uncertainties inherent in the early stage of Bioenvision's compounds under development; failure to successfully implement or complete clinical trials; failure to receive marketing clearance from regulatory agencies for our compounds under development; acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, licenses or strategic initiatives that change Bioenvision's business, structure or projections; the development of competing products; uncertainties related to Bioenvision's dependence on third parties and partners; and those risks described in Bioenvision's filings with the SEC. Bioenvision disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.