TENNESSEE FIRM TAKING PHARMACIA DRUG CANDIDATE TO MARKET

NASHVILLE - February 12, 2003--Officials from Brentwood-based VDDI Pharmaceuticals announced today that the company has been awarded exclusive worldwide license rights for Pharmacia drug candidate, Xemilofiban (xemi).

Xemi is an oral compound that shows promise in preventing heart attacks and other cardiovascular damage due to clotting during such treatments as angioplasty and the placement of stents. Similar products used for the same purpose are given intravenously, giving xemi an advantage over what is currently on the market. The drug's intravenous competitors have combined annual revenues of about $1 billion.

“The acquisition of xemi represents a rare opportunity for VDDI to establish itself as a premier Tennessee biopharmaceutical company with a global reach. This acquisition will further serve to validate our business model of strategic outsourcing with maximal leveraging of human and financial capital,” said Dr. Stephen Porter, VDDI president and CEO.

VDDI negotiated an exclusive worldwide license for the entire xemi portfolio from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. The xemi portfolio was donated to Western Michigan University from Pharmacia. The license grants VDDI complete rights to 158 patents (99 already issued, 19 granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office). The patent portfolio does not infringe any other existing intellectual property for a 2-4 day xemi treatment around angioplasty and Stent placement procedures.

Xemi has undergone Phase III clinical trials involving more than 7,000 patients in the United States. Using a restructured dosing scheme and narrowed patient selection, Porter says that input from a VDDI sponsored focus group at a recent American Heart Association meeting suggested that xemi could be commercialized without additional clinical trials. He estimates the drug could be introduced for sale in about two years with an annual global market to include more than 2 million patients.

“VDDI has tremendous opportunity as the company takes this Pharmacia drug-candidate to market,” said Tennessee Biotechnology Association (TBA) Executive Director Caroline Young. “We are so pleased to see more and more Tennessee biotech companies grow and succeed, while offering therapies and medicines to those who suffer from disease.”

VDDI will develop this asset through its global network of resources, including offices in Dublin, Ireland for the European clinical development program, Southwest Michigan Innovation Center (SMIC) www.southwestmichiganfirst.com in Kalamazoo for the project management and regulatory affairs and the new VDDI headquarters in the Cool Springs Life Sciences Center in Brentwood www.williamsonworks.com/home02showcase.htm.

VDDI Pharmaceuticals focuses on pharmaceutical product opportunities primarily in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular disease and infectious disease where general proof-of-principle has already been established in pre-clinical or human testing, and where the products are novel and offer significant potential advantages to products currently in the market or in development. For more information on VDDI, please visit www.vddipharmaceuticals.com.

The TBA is a statewide trade organization designed to promote and support the welfare of the biotechnology industry in Tennessee. The organization, formed in 1999, has more than 120 members, including universities, private sector firms, scientists, researchers, academicians, government officials and business professionals. For more information on the TBA, please visit www.tnbio.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

R. Stephen Porter, Pharm.D.
President, CEO
VDDI Pharmaceuticals
1616 Westgate Circle
Brentwood, TN 37027-0018
615-467-3080
sporter@virtualdrugdevelopment.com or kutley@virtualdrugdevelopment.com

Caroline Young
Executive Director
Tennessee Biotechnology Association
312 8th Avenue North, 9th Fl
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
615-253-1760
cyoung@tnbio.org