Covance opens new office in Latin America.

PRINCETON, N.J.--(BW HealthWire)--April 16, 1997--

Global drug development company will provide broad range of services

to rapidly growing Latin American biopharmaceutical industry

Covance Inc. (NYSE:CVD) today announced that it has opened an office in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The office, headed by Maria Fernanda Castro Duran, M.D., Associate Director of Covance (Argentina) S.A., will offer a full range of clinical and periapproval services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device firms that conduct clinical studies in Latin America.

According to the Euromonitor report on Consumer Healthcare in Latin America, sales of healthcare products in Latin America -- including ethical prescription products as well as over-the-counter medications -- totaled nearly $17.4 billion (U.S.) in 1995. Sales in this region are expected to grow by 26.6 percent by the year 2000.

"The opening of a new office in Latin America will enable us to take advantage of the tremendous growth opportunity for biopharmaceutical development in this region," said James D. Utterback, Corporate Senior Vice President and Group President, Global Ventures, of Covance. "The demand in Latin America for the full spectrum of our service capabilities, and our highly experienced project-management team, is becoming increasingly evident as customers expand their multinational clinical development programs."

Dr. Castro Duran has more than ten years of experience in clinical research and pharmaceutical development. Prior to joining Covance, Dr. Castro Duran operated her own clinical research consulting business based in Buenos Aires. Previously, she has held positions with Roche Argentina, S.A. and Laboratorios Armstrong SACIF.

Dr. Castro Duran holds a medical degree from Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires. "Expanding our presence in the southern hemisphere not only provides our customers with a broader, more diversified patient population, but also offers the reverse seasonality required to speed the development time of products that have a seasonal use, such as allergy medications," said Mr. Utterback. Covance also has a southern hemisphere office in Australia.

Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, NJ, is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive biopharmaceutical development services companies, with 1996 revenues of approximately $495 million, operations in more than 16 countries, and more than 5,500 employees worldwide. Covance combines superior development experience, expertise and global presence to provide preclinical, health economics, central laboratory, biomanufacturing, clinical packaging, and clinical and periapproval services to the world's pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies.

CONTACT: Andrew MacKnight (Media)

[phone]

or

Maria Castro Duran, M.D.

(54) 1-788-8674

or

Parag Bhansali (Investors)

[phone]