Cerimon Pharmaceuticals Announces Creation of Scientific Advisory Board

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Cerimon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced today the creation of a 10-member Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB, which includes physicians, clinicians, and biotechnology industry professionals, will provide guidance and counsel on a broad range of scientific and product development issues, including clinical trial design, interpretation of clinical data, and development of regulatory strategy. Additionally, the SAB will play an important role in advising Cerimon's management team on potential new in-licensing opportunities.

"We are extremely pleased to have assembled this group of prominent scientists and industry professionals with experience in academic and commercial research and development to join the Company's inaugural SAB," stated Paul Sekhri, President and CEO of Cerimon Pharmaceuticals. "The SAB's knowledge and experience will be an integral component to the success of our clinical and regulatory programs as we move both Simulect and topical diclofenac through U.S. clinical trials. In addition to the Company's drugs currently in development, the SAB members will provide invaluable perspectives on new product opportunities that could fill the Company's development pipeline."

  Scientific Advisory Board

  Gary Patou, M.D. - Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Executive
  V.P. and Chief Medical Officer, Cerimon Pharmaceuticals

  Craig H. Bassing, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Department of Laboratory
  Medicine and Pathology; Children's Hospital of Philadelphia;  University
  of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine; Assistant Investigator, Abramson
  Family Cancer Research Institute

  Neri M. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D. - Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery,
  GBMC Healthcare, Greater Baltimore Medical Center

  Gary S. Firestein, M.D. - Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division
  of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology, Founding Director of the UCSD
  Clinical Investigation Institute, University of California San Diego

  Renu Gupta, M.D. - Executive Vice President, Development and Chief Medical
  Officer, Transave, Inc.

  Adrian C. Hayday, Ph.D. - Kay Glendinning Professor of Immunobiology and
  Chair of the Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology, Guy's, King's and
  St Thomas' School of Medicine, King's College London

  Wendye Robbins, M.D. - Chief Executive Officer, Limerick Neurosciences,
  Clinical Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Stanford University

  William J. Sandborn, M.D. - Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic
  College of Medicine, Vice Chair of the Division of Gastroenterology and
  Hepatology and Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Interest Group
  at the Mayo Clinic; Chair of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of
  America Clinical Trials Alliance

  William K. Schmidt, Ph.D. - President, NorthStar Consulting, LLC,
  President, Eastern Pain Association

  Robert D. Schreiber, Ph.D. - Alumni Endowed Professor of Pathology and
  Immunology, Division of Immunobiology, Department of Pathology and
  Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine


  About Cerimon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Cerimon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and commercializing therapeutic products for the physician who specializes in treating autoimmune diseases and inflammation associated with autoimmune diseases. The Company also has an asset in pain management. Cerimon employs a corporate strategy of in-licensing late-stage or marketed drugs to reduce the development and regulatory risk, decrease time to market, and expand the commercial potential of known drugs.

Cerimon currently has two drugs in development, a topical formulation of diclofenac sodium for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain that will enter Phase 3 studies in 2008 and Simulect, which will enter Phase 2b studies for moderate-to-severe steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis early next year. The Company is well financed, having closed a $70 million Series A financing in late 2005 with the premier investors MPM, Nomura Phase 4 Ventures, and OrbiMed Advisors.

For more information on Cerimon, please visit the Company's website at http://www.cerimon.com/.