Star Scientific Begins Test Marketing of Stonewall Moist and Dry Snuff - Reduced Toxin, Smokeless Tobacco Products.

Business Editors

CHESTER, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 2001

Star Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq:STSI) announced that it has launched test marketing of two very low-TSNA smokeless tobacco products brand-named Stonewall(TM). The marketing theme for these new reduced toxin moist and dry snuffs is "Know Your Snuff". The two non-combustible tobacco products will be sold in a selection of stores in the Richmond and Chase City, Virginia areas. Star intends to phase in other test markets for Stonewall(TM) moist and dry snuffs during the next several weeks in Dallas, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida. The products will be available in all three cities during October.

The tobacco in both Stonewall(TM) moist and dry snuffs is 100% StarCured(TM) Virginia tobacco that is cultivated by U.S. farmers participating in the StarCured(TM) tobacco curing program. Star Scientific believes that the Stonewall(TM) products offer enhanced flavor, as well as reduced toxins, for adult tobacco consumers who want to make an informed choice about their use of smokeless tobacco products.

The unique StarCured(TM) tobacco curing technology, licensed exclusively to Star Scientific, substantially prevents the formation of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs, that occurs in traditional curing methods. Responsible scientists believe TSNAs are among the most powerful and abundant carcinogens in tobacco leaf and smoke. There also is an emerging body of scientific research that suggests TSNAs may be the only major group of toxins in smokeless tobacco.(1) The TSNA levels in the Stonewall(TM) products are substantially lower than those found in any smokeless products currently sold in the United States.

Jonnie R. Williams, Star Scientific's Chief Executive Officer, said that he expects Stonewall(TM) snuff to compete favorably with U.S. Smokeless Tobacco's market-leading brands, Skoal(TM) and Copenhagen(TM), because of Stonewall(TM)'s enhanced flavor and significantly lower TSNA levels.

Since the mid-1990's, Star Scientific has focused on the development of technologies and products that deliver less toxins to adult tobacco users. Initially these efforts centered on scaling up the StarCured(TM) technology for commercial use. This year Star will process approximately 19 million pounds of StarCured(TM) very low-TSNA tobacco, which mirrors last year's volume. One year ago, on October 2, 2000, the company began test marketing the first product outgrowth of the StarCured(TM) technology - Advance(R) - in Richmond, Virginia and Lexington, Kentucky. Advance(R), which was developed in cooperation with Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, is the first conventional premium cigarette to be manufactured with StarCured(TM) and other naturally low-TSNA tobaccos, as well as with a carbon/acetate filter designed to reduce other toxins found in cigarette smoke. The company also designed packaging and labeling that provided comparative content information and enhanced disclosures about the health risks associated with tobacco use that went far beyond the Surgeon General's required warnings. In April of this year Brown & Williamson(2) agreed to take over the Advance(R) brand, to pursue further test marketing of that product and to pay Star Scientific a licensing fee for each carton sold in the United States.

The company began to develop smokeless tobacco products using StarCured(TM) tobacco more than two years ago at the urging of its Scientific Advisory Board and independent scientific and public health advisors, as well as after careful review of the relevant scientific research which underscored that the presence of significantly fewer toxins in smokeless tobacco holds the promise for reduced health risks. At this time there is no proof to support the conclusion that the reduced toxin levels in Stonewall(TM) can be equated with reduced health risks. However, Star Scientific has been encouraged by the breadth of scientific research studies conducted in Sweden on the use of that country's low-TSNA snuff product, known as "snus", and the reduction in health risks for low-TSNA products that they have documented. The company hopes that further research by Star Scientific and by others will yield meaningful data that can validate that correlation.

Paul L. Perito, Star Scientific's Chairman, President and Chief Operating Officer, stated: "We believe that we have a responsibility to inform adult tobacco users about the reduction in TSNAs we have been able to achieve in our smokeless tobacco products, as well as the significant differences between smoked and smokeless tobacco. Therefore, our marketing theme is "Know Your Snuff". We believe an informed adult tobacco consumer is our best potential customer."

On August 21, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a report on currently marketed U.S. moist snuff products. The report compared these products to Swedish snuff products and determined that oral snuff products made in the U.S. contain alarmingly high TSNA levels. The report stated that if oral snuff manufacturers have the technological capability to reduce carcinogens in their smokeless products, they have an obligation to do so. Mr. Perito said, "Star agrees, and we already have responded to that call for action. Using the StarCured(TM) patented technology, we are manufacturing smokeless products (Stonewall(TM) moist and dry snuffs) that we believe deliver the lowest possible levels of these toxins in the world. That is the only responsible approach to pursue."

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company has tried, whenever possible, to identify these forward-looking statements using words such as "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "expects", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions. These statements reflect the Company's current beliefs and are based upon information currently available to it. Accordingly, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such statements. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include, without limitation, the fact that the Company may not be successful in litigation to enforce its patent rights, that tobacco companies and others potentially infringing its patent may not enter into royalty agreements to sublicense its patents, that the tobacco industry may not adopt low-TSNA tobacco as its predominant tobacco rapidly or at all, or that a non-infringing product competitive with the patents may be developed by a third party. Other risks of the business include the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the Company's ability to raise the capital necessary to grow its business, potential disputes concerning the Company's intellectual property, potential delays in obtaining any necessary government approvals of the Company's proposed reduced risk tobacco products, market acceptance of the Company's proposed new products, competition from companies with greater resources than the Company, the Company's decision not to join the Master Settlement Agreement ("MSA") and its decision to challenge the constitutionality of the MSA, the effect of state statutes adopted under the MSA and any subsequent modification of the MSA, the Company's dependence on key employees and on its strategic relationships with Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. The impact of potential litigation, if initiated against or by individual states that have adopted the MSA, could be materially adverse to the Company. See additional discussion under "Factors That May Affect Future Results" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000, and other factors detailed from time to time in the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or advise upon any such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

About Star Scientific

Star Scientific is a technology-oriented tobacco company with a toxicity reduction mission. It is engaged in the development of tobacco products that deliver less carcinogenic toxins (principally the tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs), through the utilization of the innovative StarCured(TM) tobacco curing technology, and in sublicensing that technology to others. Star Scientific has a Corporate and Sales office in Chester, Virginia, an Executive, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs office in Bethesda, Maryland, and manufacturing and processing facilities in Petersburg and Chase City, Virginia

See Star's website at: http://www.starscientific.com

(1) See "The Less Harmful Cigarette: A Controversial Issue". Dietrich Hoffmann, Ilse Hoffmann, Karam El-Bayoumy. Chemical Research in Toxicology, Volume 14, Number 7, July 2001.

(2) Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation is the 3rd largest tobacco company in the U.S., and the largest affiliate of British American Tobacco PLC ("BAT"), the 2nd largest tobacco company in the world.