CombiChem Announces Achievement of Additional Milestone in Roche Bioscience Collaboration.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 17, 1998--CombiChem Inc. (Nasdaq NMS: CCHM) today announced that the second of two discovery milestones has been achieved in one of its research projects with Roche Bioscience, triggering an undisclosed milestone payment under the Roche Bioscience collaboration.

The milestone achievement relates to optimization of novel inhibitors for a potential new treatment for chronic inflammatory diseases.

CombiChem entered into the collaborative agreement with Roche Bioscience in October 1996. This milestone marks the third achieved under a multiple project collaboration agreement. Under the agreement, Roche Bioscience made an up-front payment and agreed to provide research funding for the duration of each project and to make milestone payments upon the achievement of certain preclinical and clinical milestones.

Roche Bioscience retains exclusive global rights to develop and market the products resulting from the collaboration and will make royalty payments to CombiChem on worldwide sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.

CombiChem Inc., based in San Diego, is a computational drug discovery company that is applying its proprietary design technology and rapid synthesis capabilities to accelerate the discovery process for new drugs. The company believes its approach offers pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agrochemical companies the opportunity to conduct their discovery efforts in a more productive and cost effective manner. Using its proprietary Discovery Engine(TM) process, the company focuses on the generation, evolution, and optimization of new lead candidates for its collaborative partners, who will then develop, manufacture, market, and sell the resulting products.

CombiChem has established collaborative agreements with Athena Neuroscience Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Elan Corp., plc., ICOS Corp., ImClone Systems Inc., Novartis Crop Protection AG, Roche Bioscience, Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., and Teijin Limited.

CombiChem's news releases are on the Web at http://www.combichem.com.

Located in Palo Alto, Calif., Roche Bioscience is a research-based, business-oriented enterprise dedicated to the discovery and accelerated early clinical development of innovative prescription drugs. Roche Bioscience is a member of the Roche Group, with headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. The Roche Bioscience Web site is available at www.roche.com/bioscience.

Except for the historical and financial information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release may contain forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties, including significant fluctuations in quarterly financial performance depending on factors such as timing of revenues recognized and achievement of milestones, a dependence on the efforts of third parties, a new and uncertain technology employed by CombiChem, dependence on intellectual property rights, the competitive nature of the company's industry and risks of obsolescence of certain technology. Actual results may differ materially from those projected. Forward-looking statements represent the judgment of the company as of the date of this release. CombiChem disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.