Former Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert executives and scientists form new drug development company

QuatRx Pharmaceuticals Raises $10 Million in Venture Capital Funding

Experienced Team Helped Develop Many of the Industry's Most Successful Products, Including Lipitor^®, Neurontin^® and 5 Other Billion Dollar Drugs

Company to Focus Initially On Development of Drugs Targeting Nuclear Receptors

QuatRx Acquires rights to Novel Vitamin D Analogue Technologies from University of Wisconsin and Deltanoid Inc.; Also Acquires Protein Delivery Technology from Temple University

[Released January 23, 2002]

Ann Arbor, MI and Basking Ridge, NJ—A team of senior drug development executives formerly with Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert Company today announced the formation of a private biopharmaceutical company, QuatRx Pharmaceuticals Company. The Company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. QuatRx will develop novel compounds beginning in the late preclinical stage, through the completion of phase II clinical development. The Company is building a portfolio of compounds in a number of major therapeutic categories that can be rapidly developed for marketing by either QuatRx or its commercial partners. Compounds are being acquired from a variety of sources, including other biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and large pharmaceutical companies.

QuatRx has raised a total of $10 million from Frazier & Company and TL Ventures. These two venture capital companies are principal investors and co-founders of QuatRx.

"I am delighted to be working with such experienced and talented investors during the Company's initial phase of financing," said Robert L. Zerbe, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and President of QuatRx. "This financing will now enable us to begin clinical trials with our lead compound for psoriasis before the end of 2002. It will also permit us to explore the potential for additional indications for this therapeutic platform as well as pursue promising opportunities to further expand our portfolio of compounds."

Dr. Zerbe is a physician who has worked almost 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Beginning at Eli Lilly, Dr. Zerbe held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility in research and development. These included managing director, Lilly Research Center, U.K, and Vice President, Clinical Investigation and Regulatory Affairs. In 1993, Dr. Zerbe joined Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert Company as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Clinical Research and Development.

"At QuatRx, we have assembled an outstanding management team that possesses a level of real-world clinical development and regulatory experience that is unprecedented for an early stage venture," Dr. Zerbe said. "We are excited by the range of possibilities we envision for QuatRx and the opportunity to put our team's considerable experience to work. We look forward to developing a portfolio of novel drugs that target unaddressed medical needs. In this context, I am delighted with the early progress the company has made in signing three agreements within our first 12 months. Each of these provides us with exclusive proprietary rights and creates the initial therapeutic platforms from which we will build our Company's future."

QuatRx is initially focusing on drugs that target nuclear receptors. Nuclear receptors are proteins in the cell nucleus that act as receivers for a number of key hormones. They govern a wide range of essential metabolic and developmental processes in the body. Through better understanding of nuclear receptors and the role they play in drug design, new tissue-selective drugs with enhanced benefits and fewer side effects can be developed. This approach is expected to provide many exciting opportunities for QuatRx. The first of these nuclear receptors targeted by the Company is Vitamin D.

Vitamin D Analogues Among Early Drug Candidates

QuatRx has acquired exclusive worldwide development and marketing rights to the topical use of novel Vitamin D analogues from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and Deltanoid Inc. QuatRx has also acquired exclusive worldwide rights to an intranasal delivery technology from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. This intranasal delivery technology enhances the absorption of therapeutic proteins, such as insulin and human growth hormone, through the nasal membrane.

QuatRx's novel vitamin D analogue technology platform will be developed for a variety of indications, the first being the topical treatment of psoriasis, a chronic condition affecting more than 7 million Americans. The National Psoriasis Foundation estimates that, in the U.S., 56 million work hours are lost each year by people who suffer from psoriasis. The total cost burden on the U.S. health care system resulting from this disease is believed to be in excess of $3 billion annually. The goal of QuatRx is to develop a new generation of topical therapy that is more effective and has a better side effect profile than currently available topical psoriasis medications. This therapy would be intended for the almost five million psoriasis patients who are classified as having mild to moderate disease and for whom existing therapeutic options are often considered inadequate.

QuatRx is working closely on this project with Dr. Hector DeLuca, chairman of the Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison and inventor of the Company's novel vitamin D analogues. Dr. DeLuca is the world's leading expert on the metabolism and mechanism of vitamin D. He is the original discoverer of the biologically active metabolites of vitamin D, and discovered and synthesized calcidiol and calcitriol. Dr. DeLuca has over 150 active patents in the U.S. and more than 1200 foreign patents. Along with Margaret C. Dame, also a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he founded Deltanoid Inc., a private biopharmaceutical company located in Madison, WI.

Management

The QuatRx founding management team has been instrumental to the development and approval of many of the industry's most successful products. These include Lipitor , the world's largest selling pharmaceutical product ever; Neurontin ; and five other products that have also achieved sales of more than one billion dollars each.

In addition to Dr. Zerbe, other founders and senior executives of QuatRx include:

Stuart L. Dombey, M.D. serves as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Dombey is a U.K.-trained physician with 25 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 13 years of international regulatory experience. He worked for Hoechst (U.K.) and Squibb before joining Parke-Davis. At Parke-Davis, Dr. Dombey initially worked in the U.S as Vice President, International Regulatory Affairs. He later served as Vice President, Research and Development for Japan.

Christopher I. Nicholas serves as Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. Nicholas has 25 years of pharmaceutical marketing, business development and general management experience at Bayer, Hoechst/Roussel and Parke-Davis. At Parke-Davis, he held various positions including Vice President, Global Marketing as well as Vice President & General Manager for Parke-Davis in both Europe and Japan.

Randall W. Whitcomb, M.D. serves as Head of Therapeutics for QuatRx. Dr. Whitcomb is an endocrinologist trained at the University of Kansas and the National Institutes of Health. He was a member of the faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School prior to joining Parke-Davis in 1992. At Parke-Davis, Dr. Whitcomb served as Vice President within Worldwide Clinical Research and Drug Development.

QuatRx's founders also include Frazier & Company, based in Seattle, WA, and TL Ventures, located in Wayne, PA. Both of these venture partners have extensive experience in forming and financing emerging biopharmaceutical companies. These include ViroPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: VPHM), Tularik Inc., CV Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CVTX), Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ESPR) and Adolor Corporation (NASDAQ: ADLR).

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