Adherex Appoints Harvard Medical School Professor to Advisory Committee-Dr. Bruce Chabner Also an Expert in Clinical Trial Design

Business Wire, July 7, 2004

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Adherex Technologies Inc. (TSX: AHX), a biopharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of products under development, today announced the appointment of Bruce Chabner, MD, Chief of Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School to the Company's Scientific and Clinical Advisory Committee.

"We are delighted that Bruce has joined the Committee," said Donald W. Kufe, MD, Chairman of the Committee and a member of the Adherex Board of Directors. "He is known world-wide as one of the most experienced developers of cancer drugs and his expertise in cancer as well as clinical trial design will be extremely valuable for Adherex as it develops its portfolio of novel drug candidates."

Dr. Bruce Chabner is the Chief of Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His main fields of research focus on the biochemistry and pharmacology of folate antagonists, experimental therapeutics, and clinical trial design. He serves as the Associate Director of Clinical Science at Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and has held numerous other academic appointments including the position of Director of the Division of Cancer Treatment of the National Cancer Institute from 1982 to 1995. Dr. Chabner received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale College (1961) and an M.D., cum laude, from Harvard Medical School (1965). Over the years, Dr. Chabner has received numerous awards, including the Karnofsky Award of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the Bruce F. Cain Award for Drug Development of the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Public Health Service's Distinguished Service Medal.

"We are very fortunate to have Bruce join us," said Dr. William P. Peters, Chairman and CEO of Adherex. "With the recent FDA clearance of our Investigational Drug Application we are able to proceed with our first clinical study in the U.S. with Exherin(TM), followed by the planned expansion of our programs with Exherin(TM) and our rich portfolio of drug candidates, Bruce's addition to our most accomplished Scientific and Clinical Advisory Committee could not have come at a better time."

The appointment of Dr. Chabner to the Advisory Committee follows the appointment of Dr. Donald W. Kufe, Professor of Medicine at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as Chairman of the Committee, in addition to the following recent appointments: Dr. Daniel D. Von Hoff, Professor of Pathology, Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona in Tucson; Dr. Harold F. Dvorak, Chief of the Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School; Dr. Emil Frei, Director and Physician-in-Chief Emeritus and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Dr. Ann Thor, the Lloyd E. Rader Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology, Adjunct Professor of Surgery, Associate Director for Translational Research and the Program Director for Breast Cancer Program at the University of Oklahoma; Dr. Mark Hughes, President of the Genesis Genetics Institute in Michigan and expert in techniques of genetic and molecular expression analysis using genomic and proteomic techniques; Dr. Joseph Loscalzo, Wade Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine, Director of the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute at Boston University School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief, Boston Medical Center; Dr. Stephen Byers, Director of the MD/PhD Program, Professor, Oncology and Cell Biology, Lombardi Cancer Center and a Member of the Interdisciplinary Program in Tumor Biology at Georgetown University Medical Center; and Dr. Robert Herfkens, Professor of Radiology and Director of Magnetic Resonance Imaging at Stanford University, whose background includes training in internal medicine, nuclear medicine and radiology.

About Adherex Technologies

Adherex Technologies Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of products under development. Four products are in clinical development including Exherin(TM), Adherex's lead cadherin antagonist compound, and STS, a drug that protects against severe hearing loss that is often produced by platinum-based anticancer agents.Adherex's intellectual property includes broad, interlocking protection for cadherin-mediated adhesion and represents what the Company believes to be the world's broadest portfolio of vascular targeting and cell adhesion modulating agents.The Company has offices in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and Ottawa, Canada.

For more information, please visit Adherex's website at www.adherex.com.

Adherex Technologies will discuss the Company's development plans for
its drug candidates as part of a corporate update investor conference
call:

Time:             10:00 am Eastern Daylight Time
                  Thursday, July 8, 2004
Live Call In:     877-407-8035 (Canada and US)
                  201-689-8035 (International)
Web cast:         www.adherex.com
Replay Number:    877-660-6853 (Canada and US)
                  201-612-7415 (International)
Replay Passcodes  (both required for playback):
                  Account #: 1628
                  Conference ID #: 111018

Replay available until July 22, 2004 at 11:59 PM or on the Adherex
website (www.adherex.com) until October 8, 2004.