Dendreon Corporation Appoints Richard B. Brewer to Board of Directors.

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SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2004

Dendreon Corporation (Nasdaq:DNDN) today announced that Richard B. Brewer has been appointed to the Company's board of directors.

Mr. Brewer brings nearly 30 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience to Dendreon. He is the founding partner of Crest Asset Management, providing management guidance to healthcare companies and investing in select high-potential biotechnology opportunities. Most recently, he spent five years as the chief executive officer and president of Scios Inc., a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel treatments for cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and cancer. At Scios, Brewer led the company in achieving FDA approval for their novel protein therapeutic Natrecor(R), which has become one of the most successful and widely used cardiovascular drugs in the acute care setting. In addition, he led the growth of Scios from a small biotechnology company into one with over 700 employees and a broad product pipeline. In 2003, Brewer guided Scios through its $2.4 billion merger with Johnson & Johnson.

"Dendreon will benefit from Dick's long history and proven track record in the biotechnology industry, particularly his successful experience commercializing successful products for major unmet medical needs," said Christopher S. Henney, Ph.D., D.Sc., chairman of Dendreon's board of directors. "His combination of industry experience and dedication to patient treatment will be invaluable to us as we work to move Provenge and our other product candidates closer to commercialization."

"Joining Dendreon's board helps me fulfill my personal goal of helping patients and enables me to apply my commercial experience in developing and commercializing drugs for cancer and other diseases," said Richard B. Brewer. "As a cancer survivor myself, I know first-hand the acute need patients have for potential new treatments such as Provenge. As a member of the Dendreon board I hope to put both my professional and personal experience to work."

Previously, Mr. Brewer was Genentech's senior vice president of sales and marketing and senior vice president of Genentech Europe and Canada. In this position, Brewer had overall management responsibilities for the establishment and development of Genentech's European operations and, in addition, spearheaded all global product launches prior to 1995. Mr. Brewer also previously served as the Chief Operating Officer at Heartport, a cardiovascular device company developing minimally invasive Port-Access approaches to major heart surgery. Brewer is an active patient advocate, serving as an advisory board member for the Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions (CAMS), a non-profit organization dedicated to expediting the discovery and development of life-saving drugs. In addition to Dendreon, he serves on the board of Agensys, Inc., and is an advisory board member at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management Center for Biotechnology at Northwestern University. Mr. Brewer holds a BS from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Dendreon Corporation is a biotechnology company developing targeted therapies for cancer. The company's lead investigational product candidate, Provenge(R), is a cancer immunotherapy undergoing a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of androgen independent prostate cancer. In addition to its immunotherapies in clinical and preclinical development for a variety of cancers, Dendreon's product pipeline also includes monoclonal antibody, small molecule and pro-drug product candidates. Dendreon has research and development alliances with Genentech, Inc., Abgenix, Inc. and Dyax Corp. For more information about the company and its programs, visit www.dendreon.com.

Except for historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, particularly those risks and uncertainties inherent in the process of discovering, developing and commercializing drugs that are safe and effective for use as human therapeutics. Factors that may cause such a difference include reliance on directors and key employees, risks related to Dendreon's limited operating history, risks associated with completing Dendreon's clinical trials, the risk that the results of a clinical trial, including Phase 3 trials of Provenge, will not support applying for or approval of a biologics license by the FDA, the risks associated with development of manufacturing capabilities and other infrastructure to support commercialization, including the risks that we may be unable to successfully scale up our manufacturing and production capabilities or may lack adequate capital to do so, the risk that our product candidates, if approved for sale, may have none or limited commercial success, the risk that clinical trials may be suspended or terminated because of unacceptable health risks or for other reasons, and the risks that our competitors may develop products that are safer, more effective or reach the market sooner than our product candidates, the uncertainty of Dendreon's future access to capital, the risk that Dendreon may not secure or maintain relationships with collaborators, and dependence on intellectual property. Further information on the factors and risks that could affect Dendreon's business, financial condition and results of operations, are contained in Dendreon's public disclosure filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which are available at www.sec.gov.

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