San Diego, California
December 12, 2002

Brings Nearly 20 Years of Biotechnology Industry Experience to Epicyte as Company Prepares to Enter First Clinical Trials

Epicyte Pharmaceutical, Inc., a San Diego biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery
and development of human monoclonal antibodies, has named Lloyd M. Kunimoto as chief executive officer.

"We are delighted to have Lloyd join Epicyte as CEO and a member of the board of directors," said Lyle Hohnke, an Epicyte director. "Lloyd has shown versatility and insightful judgment in his previous roles at Exelixis, Monsanto and Calgene. Epicyte expects to be the first plant-based pharmaceutical company to enter clinical trials, and Lloyd's leadership during this crucial time for the company is essential to our success."

Prior to joining Epicyte, Kunimoto was senior vice president - corporate development for Exelixis, a genomics-based drug discovery company working primarily in the area of cancer therapeutics. There, he had overall responsibility for establishing and managing corporate partnerships and developing and implementing Exelixis' acquisition strategy. Kunimoto was instrumental in the negotiation of an alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb, finalized a large joint venture with Bayer AG, negotiated the terms of a collaboration with Protein Design Labs, and established a multi-year partnership with Dow AgroSciences.

Kunimoto also served as vice president of commercial development for Monsanto Company's Nutrition and Consumer Sector and was president and CEO of Calgene, a biotechnology company focused in agricultural products and technology that was acquired by Monsanto in 1997.

"Lloyd has demonstrated his leadership ability, both in large pharma and start-up environments. He's very gifted in business development and has forged numerous mutually beneficial corporate partnerships," said Hohnke. "With an impressive understanding of the R&D programs underway within key pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, Lloyd will provide insight on these companies' scientific platforms and how Epicyte can contribute to their long-term product development plans."

Mich Hein, Epicyte's president, founder and a member of its board of directors, said the addition of Kunimoto to the management team represents a major milestone. "As the company prepares to take its lead compound, HX8, into clinical trials in mid-2003, we are expanding our executive management team to address the new challenges we face. Lloyd is eminently qualified to lead this effort, and I am looking forward to working with him during this exciting phase in Epicyte's development."

Epicyte has broad and exclusive commercial rights to a U.S. patent claiming any transgenic plant that expresses any antibody, including human monoclonal antibodies. This technology allows Epicyte to produce large quantities of antibodies at substantially reduced capital and manufacturing costs.

Epicyte Pharmaceutical, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics to treat inflammatory and infectious diseases. The company's proprietary technology for producing antibodies in plants allows Epicyte to produce large quantities of antibodies at substantially reduced capital and manufacturing costs. High production costs associated with traditional methods for producing antibodies have limited their use as a disease treatment. Epicyte is using its proprietary technology to produce its own antibody pipeline and to address capacity constraints in the antibody-based therapeutics market. Epicyte has partnered with Dow on its lead compound HX8 and also has partnered with Dow to produce R19, a treatment for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Epicyte's discovery and development efforts also focus on building a pipeline of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of patients with other major healthcare problems, including Clostridium difficile, AIDS and Alzheimer's disease.