Cylene Pharmaceuticals Appoints Stella M. Sung, Ph.D. As Chief Business Officer

Experienced Biotechnology Venture Capital Executive Joins Senior Management Team

San Diego, CA - April 21, 2006

Cylene Pharmaceuticals announced today the appointment of Stella M. Sung, Ph.D., as Chief Business Officer. Dr. Sung has over a decade of experience in leadership, investment, transaction and management roles in the venture capital and biopharmaceutical sectors. As a long-time venture capitalist and an active investor, Dr. Sung has extensive experience in leading deals, structuring and negotiating transactions, working with senior management to develop business development relationships, and establishing corporate partnerships for her portfolio companies. In her role as Cylene’s Chief Business Officer, she will lead the company’s business operations, finance, business development, and licensing functions, reporting to CEO William G. Rice, Ph.D.

Dr. Sung was most recently a Managing Director at Coastview Capital, a life science venture capital firm founded by Gordon Binder, Amgen’s CEO from 1988-2000. While at Coastview Capital, she led the $26.3 million Series B round of financing for Cylene Pharmaceuticals and joined the Board of Directors. Prior to Coastview Capital, Dr. Sung was a General Partner at Oxford Bioscience Partners. Dr. Sung was the lead investor in 70% of her venture investments. She has served on seven Boards of Directors of venture-backed life science companies, and served as Chairman of the Board for four companies. Dr. Sung earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University where she was a National Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow.

“We are delighted to recruit Dr. Sung to our senior management team,” said CEO William G. Rice, Ph.D., “In addition to Stella being an exceptionally talented executive with extensive relationships in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and venture capital industries, she has a thorough and firsthand understanding of Cylene’s product pipeline and technology platform. Her choice to join our team reflects a strong vote of confidence in the commercial potential of Cylene’s lead compounds and of the company’s innovative platform for drug discovery based on targeting ribosomal RNA biogenesis inhibition.”

“I am very excited to join Cylene Pharmaceuticals as its first drug candidate advances towards Phase II studies and several other compounds approach the clinic,” said Dr. Sung. “Moreover, I believe that Cylene is at the stage where partnering opportunities might get very interesting. Cylene’s compounds are differentiated because they act on a novel target within a well-validated antitumor pathway, and this target is downstream from the classical mutations in various kinases and tumor suppressor proteins. As a result, Cylene’s lead compound, CX-3543, has the ability to affect cancers arising from a multitude of genetic defects in many different types of tissues. I am looking forward to playing a leadership role in helping to build Cylene Pharmaceuticals into a leading small molecule oncology company.”

About Cylene Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Cylene Pharmaceuticals is a biotech pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of targeted small-molecule drugs to treat life-threatening cancers. Using its proprietary Ribosomal RNA Biosynthesis Inhibition Technology (RABIT™) to design molecules that combat drug-resistant forms of cancer, Cylene has created multiple product candidates in different stages of development. Cylene’s most advanced cancer agent, CX-3543, is a Ribosomal RNA Biogenesis Inhibitor (RBI) in late-stage Phase 1 clinical development. More information can be found at www.cylenepharma.com.

Company Contact:
William G. Rice, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Cylene Pharmaceuticals
858-875-5100
wrice@cylenepharma.com