Cubist Pharmaceuticals Announces Members of Scientific Advisory Board.

LEXINGTON, Mass. -- Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST) named three members to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which was established earlier this year under the leadership of Associate Dean for Research at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine Dr. Gordon Archer.

The SAB will be an ongoing resource to provide Cubist management with additional scientific and medical perspective as the company approaches Go/No Go decision points on its preclinical anti-infective programs, as well as on in-licensing or acquisition drug candidates, and review of clinical development plans. The company also engages experts with specific therapeutic expertise as needed for assessment of certain acute care areas.

Dr. Archer became the Chairman of the SAB in October 2007 which required him to leave Cubist's Board of Directors. In addition to his current position at VCU, he is the director of the school's M.D./Ph.D. program. Dr. Archer has served as professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at VCU since 1985 and, from 1992 to 2005, served as chairman of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the school. Since 1975, he has held various faculty roles at VCU and began his career as an instructor of medicine in 1974 at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is a previous member and chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Study Section on Bacteriology and Mycology and the NIH Study Section on Drug Discovery and Mechanisms of Resistance to Antimicrobials. Additionally, Dr. Archer was a member of the Food and Drug Administration's Antiinfective Advisory Board and he is currently on the Scientific Advisory Board of MicuRx Pharmaceuticals. He received a B.A. in Pre-med and German from Washington and Lee University in Virginia, and his M.D. from the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

The new members joining Dr. Archer are Dr. Bonnie Bassler, Professor Eric Jacobsen and Dr. Richard White.

Dr. Bonnie Bassler, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator and the Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. She received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Davis, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins University. The research in her laboratory is focused on the molecular mechanisms of bacterial intercellular communication. This process is known as quorum sensing. Dr. Bassler was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2002. She is the 2006 recipient of the American Society for Microbiology's Eli Lilly Investigator Award for fundamental contributions to microbiological research.

Professor Eric Jacobsen is the Sheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University, a position he has held since 2001. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from New York University, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1986 to 1988 he was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT. Professor Jacobson has been a professor at Harvard University since 1993. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he provides consulting services to a number of pharmaceutical companies. Professor Jacobsen serves on the Editorial Board of Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis, and Science of Synthesis, and on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Journal of Organic Chemistry, Synthesis, Synlett, Organic Letters, the Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry, the Journal of Molecular Catalysis, Current Opinion in Drug Discovery & Development, and Chemistry: An Asian Journal. Professor Jacobsen's research interests are in organic chemistry, and particularly on the discovery and application of new methods for organic synthesis.

Dr. Richard White provides consulting services to the biotechnology sector, offering special expertise in antimicrobial drug discovery and development. He received his B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Manchester and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Oxford. After a post-doctoral fellowship on microbial biochemistry at Oxford, he began a career in infectious disease drug discovery in 1969. The first 25 years were spent in the pharmaceutical industry in positions of increasing responsibility at Lepetit (in Italy), Glaxo (in England), Lederle (in the USA), and finally at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Connecticut, where he was Vice President in charge of Infectious Disease Drug Discovery for 12 years. In 1997 he moved to biotech, taking a position at Versicor in California as Chief Scientific Officer. In the ensuing eight years he played an important role in licensing in Dalbavancin and Anidulafungin, taking Versicor public and merging with Biosearch Italia. The merged entities became Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, which was sold for $1.9 billion to Pfizer in 2005. Dr. White's research interests are on the mechanism of action of and resistance to antibacterial drugs, and the special role that natural products have played in treating infectious diseases.

About Cubist

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development, and commercialization of pharmaceutical products that address unmet medical needs in the acute care environment. In the U.S., Cubist markets CUBICIN[R] (daptomycin for injection), the first antibiotic in a new class of anti-infectives called lipopeptides. The Cubist product pipeline includes pre-clinical programs that address unmet medical need in Gram-positive infections, Gram-negative infections, and CDAD (Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea). Cubist is headquartered in Lexington, MA. Additional information can be found at Cubist's web site at www.cubist.com.

Cubist Safe Harbor Statement

Statements contained herein that are not historical fact may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements made by Cubist. These factors include, but are not limited to: (i)the level of acceptance of CUBICIN by physicians, patients, third-party payors and the medical community; (ii) any changes in the current or anticipated market demand or medical need for CUBICIN; (iii) any unexpected adverse events related to CUBICIN, particularly as CUBICIN is used in the treatment of a growing number of patients around the world; (iv) competition in the markets in which we and our partners market CUBICIN, including marketing approvals for new products that will be competitive with CUBICIN; (v) whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, accepts proposed clinical trial protocols that may be achieved in a timely manner for additional studies of CUBICIN or any other drug candidate we seek to enter into clinical trials; (vi) whether we will receive, and the potential timing of, regulatory approvals or clearances to market CUBICIN in countries where it is not yet approved; (vii) legislative and policy changes in the United States and other jurisdictions where our products are sold that may affect the ease of getting a new product or a new indication approved; (viii) changes in government reimbursement for our or our competitors' products; (ix) whether or not third parties may seek to market generic versions of our products by filing Abbreviated New Drug Applications, or ANDAs, with the FDA, and the results of any litigation that we file to defend and/or assert our patents against such generic companies; (x) our ability to conduct successful clinical trials in a timely manner; (xi) the effect that the results of ongoing or future clinical trials of CUBICIN may have on its acceptance in the medical community; (xii) the ability of our third party manufacturers, including our single source provider of active pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, to manufacture sufficient quantities of CUBICIN in accordance with Good Manufacturing Practices and other requirements of the regulatory approvals for CUBICIN and at an acceptable cost; (xiii) our dependence upon collaborations with our partners and our partners' ability to execute on development, regulatory and sales expectations in their territories; (xiv) our ability to finance our operations; (xv) the effectiveness of our sales force and our sales force's ability to access targeted physicians; (xvi) potential costs resulting from product liability or other third party claims; (xvii) our ability to protect our proprietary technologies; (xviii) our ability to integrate successfully the operations of any business that we may acquire and the potential impact of any future acquisition on our financial results; (xix) our ability to discover, acquire or in-license drug candidates and develop and achieve commercial success for drug candidates; and (xx) a variety of risks common to our industry, including ongoing regulatory review, public and investment community perception of the industry, legislative or regulatory changes, and our ability to attract and retain talented employees.

Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements are contained in Cubist's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in such filings.

Cubist and CUBICIN are registered trademarks of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc.