Cylene Pharmaceuticals Raises $26.3 Million in Series B Financing

Company Announces New Board Members

San Diego, CA - May 25, 2005

Cylene Pharmaceuticals, an oncology drug discovery and development company, today announced the completion of a $26.3 million Series B financing, led by Coastview Capital. The funding will allow Cylene to advance CX-3543, its lead product for the treatment of multiple cancers, into clinical development. William Rice, Ph.D., President and CEO of Cylene announced the financing today at the 7th Annual C21 BioVentures Conference in Monterey, California.

In addition to Coastview Capital, other new investors include: BioVentures Investors, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners, Morningside Venture Investments, TDL Investors, William Harris Investors, Lakeview Capital, and the Viterbi Group. The company secured strong additional participation from all existing shareholders, which include Sanderling Ventures, Novartis BioVentures, Research Corporation Technologies, and IngleWood Ventures. Stella M. Sung, Ph.D., Managing Director of Coastview Capital, and Mickey Y. Kim, M.D., Principal of BioVentures Investors, have been elected to the Cylene Board of Directors.

"Successful completion of this financing is a major milestone for Cylene," said Dr. Rice. "This funding will enable us to advance our therapeutic pipeline of quadruplex targeting agents into the clinic, beginning with CX-3543. We anticipate nominating a second clinical candidate within the next 12 months."

"We have selected Cylene as the first investment in our new fund because we are impressed with the company's innovative and proprietary approach to developing potentially important cancer drugs," said Dr. Sung of Coastview Capital. "We believe that the management team, together with the scientific founders, have the experience and commitment to build a leading life science company."

Cylene is identifying and developing small molecules with known drug-like properties against validated cancer targets through a novel mechanism of action. The company's scientific founders have discovered quadruplex motifs in genomic DNA that regulate the expression of clusters of key oncogenes but not normal cellular genes. Cylene's proprietary Quadruplex Targeting technology allows the Company to direct small molecules at these quadruplexes and thereby induce apoptosis in several important cancer types.

"We are thrilled to have such quality funds investing in our company," said Tom Farrell, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Cylene. "We view their financial commitment as a reflection of the strength of our pipeline and the experience of our management team."

About Cylene Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Cylene Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately held pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of first-in-class small molecule drugs to treat life-threatening diseases, with a particular emphasis in oncology. Cylene's pipeline is led by CX-3543, a quadruplex targeting pro-apoptotic agent in late stage preclinical development. CX-3543 and other molecules in the pipeline originate from the company's proprietary drug discovery platform. More information can be found at www.cylenepharma.com.