Emil Frei III, M.D. Joins Angstrom Pharmaceuticals' Scientific Advisory Board.

SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Aug. 12, 1999--

Angstrom Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced that Emil Frei III, M.D. has joined the company's Scientific Advisory Board.

Frei is Physician-in-Chief Emeritus at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the first Richard and Susan Smith Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

Frei was the first oncologist to devise novel and rationally based therapeutic trials and thus played the central role in the development of the scientific principles of cancer chemotherapy. He is one of the nation's leading clinician-investigators in cancer research and in the interdisciplinary care and treatment of children and adults with cancer.

Frei, in collaboration with Dr. Emil Freireich, developed the world's first treatment leading to complete cure for leukemia patients. The Frei/Freireich team was the first to devise the revolutionary approach of combination chemotherapy -- using several drugs in combination to treat patients -- which rapidly gained widespread acceptance.

"We are proud and honored that Dr. Frei has decided to join our Scientific Advisory Board," said Dr. Terence R. Jones, chairman and chief executive officer of Angstrom Pharmaceuticals. "He has made pioneering and continuing contributions to the field of clinical oncology and has brought great insight as to how chemotherapeutic drugs could be best used for the patient's benefit. The fact that he has chosen to advise our Company is a recognition of the revolution in cancer treatment that is occurring within the halls of Angstrom."

"Dr. Frei has restructured his clinical emphasis to accord with the revolution in cancer biology and is eager to study the anti-angiogenic, and antimetastatic drugs that Angstrom is developing to reduce or potentially replace chemotherapy," said Jones. "Wholly different trial designs are now necessary and there is no clinician more willing to alter the existing ones than Dr. Frei himself who put them there in the first place. His thinking is refreshingly modern."

Frei was Head of the Leukemia Service and Chief of Medicine at the National Cancer Institute between 1955-1965 before he joined M.D. Anderson as Chief of Developmental Therapeutics. In 1972 he became Physician-in-Chief at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard. Frei is past president of the American Association for Cancer Research and of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In addition he is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and is a member of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves as a consultant to the National Cancer Institute and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities and major medical schools throughout the world.

Frei has received numerous awards for his contributions to cancer care, among them: the Albert Lasker Award in Cancer Chemotherapy in 1972; the Charles F. Kettering Prize for Cancer Research from General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, which he shared with Freireich in 1983; The Hamao Umezawa Award in 1985; the 1989 Armand Hammer Cancer Prize, which he shared with Dr. Vincent deVita; and the first NIH Distinguished Alumni Award in 1990, which he also shared with Freireich.

Frei joins eight other renowned oncologists and scientists in the U.S. and U.K. who currently serve on the Board. Existing board members include Adrian L. Harris, M.D., Webster K. Cavenee, Ph.D., David A. Cheresh, Ph.D., Ronald H. Goldfarb, Ph.D., Bruce R. Zetter, Ph.D., Ian A. Wilson, Ph.D., Peter J. Goodford, Ph.D., and Roy Bicknell, Ph.D.

San Diego-based Angstrom Pharmaceuticals (www.angstrominc.com) was formed in 1996 to add a new dimension to drug discovery. It is committed to discovering small-molecule drugs that block extracellular cytokine-receptor interactions responsible for "switching on" disease processes. The company has chosen cancer as its first focus and is currently outlicensing its proprietary drugs that target tumor angiogenesis and tumor metastasis.

Certain words and expressions used in this report are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, anticipated, or implied. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include an inability to duplicate in the clinic results demonstrated in preclinical studies, timely development of any potential products that can be shown to be safe and effective, receiving necessary regulatory approvals, difficulties in manufacturing any of the company's potential products and the risk factors set forth from time to time in a prospectus pursuant to which Angstrom is offering securities. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revision to these forward-looking statements, which may be made to reflect the events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.