Kemia Announces Appointment of Chief Medical Officer and VP of Business Development; Management Changes Reflect Kemia's Commitment to Advance Compounds into the Clinic.

SAN DIEGO -- Kemia, Inc. today announced the addition of two new members to its senior management team: Alison Pilgrim, BM BCh DPhil, chief medical officer, and Bryan Jones, Ph.D., vice president of business development. In addition, Ed Roberts, Ph.D., has resigned from his current role as senior vice president and chief scientific officer and has accepted a position at The Scripps Research Institute, with laboratories in both San Diego and the new Florida Scripps Center.

"Over the past two years Kemia's discovery team has made significant progress identifying selective allosteric kinase inhibitors which address serious unmet medical needs," said Lewis Shuster, president and CEO of Kemia. "As our lead programs enter the clinic, the enhancement of Kemia's drug development and business development expertise is an important step in the maturation of the company and reflects the progress we have achieved during our short history. We are fully supportive of Dr. Roberts' decision to pursue his basic research talents at such a fine institution as Scripps."

Pilgrim brings to Kemia over 19 years experience in clinical drug development within the pharmaceutical industry in a wide range of clinical and project leadership positions, having served most recently as chief medical officer of Avera Pharmaceuticals. As chief medical officer, Pilgrim will lead the clinical development of Kemia's portfolio of compounds. She has extensive international experience in the clinical development (Phases I through IV) of neurology, metabolic, anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular and HIV compounds. In addition to serving as senior vice president, Clinical Development, Biopharmaceuticals for Elan Corporation, where she led the global clinical development function, including programs in the areas of multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and pain, Pilgrim has held senior clinical positions at Glaxo, Sanofi and DuPont Pharmaceuticals. During her tenure in the industry, Pilgrim made significant contributions in the clinical development of several blockbuster products, including leadership of the development and global registration of GlaxoSmithKline's Imitrex(R) and Sanofi's Plavix(R).

Jones brings to Kemia 15 years of pharmaceutical experience, most recently in product licensing at ICOS, where he lead the in-licensing and out-licensing of several preclinical and clinical stage programs. As vice president of business development, Jones will lead the efforts to partner the company's drug programs and the acquisition of additional technology to expand Kemia's pipeline. In addition to his pharmaceutical business experience, Jones has also held research positions at ICOS and Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he worked in the fields of autoimmunity, phosphodiesterases and angiogenesis.

"We are delighted to have both Alison and Bryan join us at Kemia. Their experience in the industry will be important for building successful clinical programs and partnerships," said Shuster.

About Kemia, Inc.

Kemia discovers and develops new oral small molecule medicines for well validated clinical targets that address significant unmet needs. Kemia applies its medicinal chemistry experience to create proprietary chemistries for two large and yet underdeveloped classes of small molecule drug opportunities -- alpha helix interactions and allosteric kinase inhibitors. These target classes include numerous drug discovery targets across major disease areas including inflammation, diabetes, CNS disorders and cancer. Kemia anticipates that its first drug candidate, an allosteric kinase inhibitor to treat inflammation, will enter human clinical trials early in 2005 and that its second program, also a kinase inhibitor, will enter the clinic in late 2005 or early 2006.

NOTE TO EDITORS: In the company name Kemia, Inc. noted in this news release, there is an accent over the "e" in "Kemia."