Discovery Partners International Announces Appointment of New Chief Financial Officer

Business Wire, Nov 8, 2001

Business Editors

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2001

Discovery Partners International Inc. (NASDAQ: DPII) today announced the appointment of Craig S. Kussman as the company's new Chief Financial Officer.

"I'm delighted to welcome Craig to the Discovery Partners' senior management team," stated Riccardo Pigliucci, Discovery Partners' president and chief executive officer. "With the benefits of Craig's outstanding experience, we plan to continue our strategy of industry consolidation and expansion into new technologies and collaborations."

Kussman was most recently executive vice president and chief financial and chief administrative officer of SYNAVANT Inc. (NASDAQ: SNVT), the global pioneer of Pharmaceutical Relationship Management solutions for the biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Previously, he held various positions with IMS HEALTH, including Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, with responsibility for identifying, evaluating and implementing various strategic, financial, acquisition and divestiture alternatives. He also served as vice president of corporate development for Cognizant Corp., IMS HEALTH's predecessor company. Before transferring to Cognizant, Kussman held financial planning, acquisition, and new business development positions for The Dun & Bradstreet Corp. Kussman earned a BA cum laude in economics and mathematics from Pomona College and an MBA in finance with Distinction from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania.

"I'm looking forward to joining Discovery Partners to tackle the challenge of managing the company's growth and expansion; the drug discovery market represents a unique opportunity in the post-genomic era and I'm glad to be associated with a leading player in the industry," stated Kussman.

Kussman replaces Jack Fitzpatrick, who has resigned as the company's chief financial officer to pursue other opportunities. "We thank Jack for his efforts and contributions during our successful Initial Public Offering and his tenure at Discovery Partners," concluded Pigliucci.

Recently, Discovery Partners also announced the appointment of Bud Bromley to the position of vice president, business development, further strengthening the company's senior management team.

About Discovery Partners

Discovery Partners International Inc. offers integrated services and products that span the drug discovery continuum including target characterization, high throughput screening, lead generation, lead optimization, high throughput synthesis automation, and gene expression analysis. Discovery Partners provides drug discovery collaborations with its customers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. DPII is headquartered in San Diego and has operations in several facilities in the United States and Europe. For more information on Discovery Partners International Inc., please visit the company's Web site at http://www.discoverypartners.com.

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty. Discovery Partners' actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in Discovery Partners' operations, development efforts and business environment, including integration of acquired businesses, the trend toward consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry, quarterly sales variability, technological advances by competitors, and other risks and uncertainties more fully described in Discovery Partners' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2000 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Discovery Partners' other SEC reports.