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Biopharmaceuticals Personnel

 News Release - June 20, 2007

Plexxikon Expands Management Team and Board of Directors

Gary C. Visor, Ph.D. Appointed Vice President, Pharmaceutics
David H. MacCallum Joins Board of Directors


BERKELEY, Calif.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Plexxikon Inc. today announced Gary C. Visor, Ph.D. was named vice president, pharmaceutics, a new position responsible for managing pharmaceutical drug substance scale-up, manufacturing and dosage design and development, required for the company's development programs. In addition, David H. MacCallum has been appointed to Plexxikon's board of directors.

Appointment of Gary C. Visor, Vice President, Pharmaceutics

"Gary brings to Plexxikon a wealth of pharmaceutical manufacturing and operations experience which will be invaluable as we expand our clinical stage pipeline and the need for kilogram quantities of clinical-grade drug substance increases to support these programs," said K. Peter Hirth, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Plexxikon Inc. "Over the course of the last six months, we have initiated a phase 1 clinical trial using PLX4032 to treat melanoma and colorectal cancer, and in partnership with Wyeth, we have started enrollment of patients in a phase 2b clinical trial evaluating PPM-204 (PLX204) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes."

"Later this year, we anticipate the further expansion of our growing clinical stage portfolio as we plan to file an IND for a novel pain agent, and move multiple compounds from our Fms franchise into pre-development and IND-enabling studies, targeting rheumatoid arthritis and bone metastases in breast cancer," commented Kathleen Sereda Glaub, president of Plexxikon Inc.

Dr. Visor has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing experience in process development, pharmaceutical operations, formulation and quality assurance. Prior to Plexxikon, he served as vice president, pharmaceutical research and process development and vice president of technical operations for OSI Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for drug substance bulk synthesis and drug product operations supporting oncology, metabolic and ophthalmology businesses. Previously, Dr. Visor held a variety of senior operations and development positions at leading biopharmaceutical companies including Cardinal Health, CellGate, InterMune, Roche Bioscience, Gilead Sciences, and Syntex Research. Dr. Visor received his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Florida.

Appointment of David H. MacCallum, Director

"We are extremely pleased to welcome David to our board of directors, as his financial acumen, strategic insight and extensive industry experience will help guide us as we continue to build a leading drug discovery and development organization," continued Dr. Hirth.

Mr. MacCallum is currently managing director of Outer Islands Capital, a health care driven hedge fund. Prior to his tenure at Outer Islands Capital, Mr. MacCallum pioneered the health care and life sciences practices at the investment brokerages Hambrecht & Quist and UBS Securities before going on to serve as global head of Salomon Smith Barney's health care division. He holds an A.B. degree from Brown University, an M.B.A. from New York University, and is a chartered financial analyst. Mr. MacCallum also serves as a director for ZymoGenetics, Incorporated, MannKind Corp., Vital Signs Inc. and several other privately held companies.

Plexxikon Profile

Plexxikon is a leader in structure-guided discovery and development of novel small molecule pharmaceuticals to treat human disease. The company's most advanced compound PPM-204 is a PPAR pan-agonist for the treatment of diabetes, now in Phase 2 clinical testing in collaboration with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Plexxikon's second clinical stage program involves PLX4032, currently in a Phase 1 clinical trial for melanoma and colorectal cancer, partnered with Roche. Preclinical development programs include a kinase inhibitor for the treatment of pain, and a portfolio of kinase inhibitors for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis as well as bone metastases in breast cancer.

Plexxikon's proprietary Scaffold-Based Drug Discovery(TM) platform is being applied to build a pipeline of diverse product opportunities for the treatment of metabolic and cardiovascular disease, inflammation, oncology and CNS disorders. This discovery process integrates a number of state-of-the-art technologies, including structural screening as one key component that provides a significant competitive advantage over other drug discovery approaches. To date, the company has discovered a portfolio of clinical and preclinical stage compounds in each of its targeted disease areas.

Plexxikon is seeking pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners for select collaboration opportunities. For more information, please visit www.plexxikon.com.


Source: Plexxikon

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