Sciele Pharma, Inc. Adopts $100 Million Share Repurchase Program

Business Wire, April 28, 2008

Approves Redemption of Poison Pill

ATLANTA -- Sciele Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCRX), a specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced that its Board of Directors has adopted a new share repurchase program, authorizing the repurchase of up to $100 million of its outstanding shares of common stock over the next 12 months. The plan became effective on April 25, 2008.

Separately, Sciele announced that, in connection with an effort to improve the Company's corporate governance practices, its Board of Directors approved the redemption of all outstanding stock purchase rights granted pursuant to the Shareholder Protection Rights Agreement (Poison Pill), dated as of July 12, 2002, between the Company and LaSalle Bank National Association, as rights agent (the "Rights Plan"). The redemption of the rights implements the Board's decision to terminate the Rights Plan effective May 9, 2008. The Company will pay, as promptly as practicable, a redemption price equal to $0.001 per right in cash to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 9, 2008. Following the redemption, the rights and the Rights Plan will terminate.

Commenting on the announcement, Patrick Fourteau, Chief Executive Officer of Sciele, said, "The new $100 million share repurchase program and the removal of the poison pill are designed to enhance shareholder value. Our target is to repurchase at least 10% of our outstanding common shares. Our strong balance sheet and cash flows ensure that we will still have sufficient financial resources to execute our business plan."

Sciele Pharma may conduct its purchases in the open market and in privately negotiated transactions. The repurchase program does not require Sciele Pharma to acquire any specific number of shares and may be terminated at any time. Approximately $10 million remained under the Company's previous $40 million repurchase program, set to expire on August 2, 2008. Such unexecuted repurchases have been terminated.

Sciele Pharma, Inc. Background

Sciele Pharma, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company specializing in sales, marketing and development of branded prescription products focused on the therapeutic areas of Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Women's Health and Pediatrics. The Company's Cardiovascular and Diabetes products treat patients with high cholesterol, hypertension, high triglycerides, unstable angina and Type 2 diabetes; its Women's Health products are designed to improve the health and well-being of women and mothers and their babies; and its Pediatrics products treat allergies, asthma, coughs and colds, and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Sciele Pharma employs more than 900 people. The Company's success is based on placing the needs of patients first, improving health and quality of life, and implementing its business platform - an Entrepreneurial Spirit, Innovation, Execution Excellence, Simplicity, and Teamwork.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ from those described. Although we believe that the expectations expressed in these statements are reasonable, we cannot promise that our expectations will turn out to be correct. Our actual results could be materially different from and worse than our expectations. With respect to such forward-looking statements, we seek the protections afforded by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These risks include, without limitation:

We may not attain expected revenues and earnings. If we are unsuccessful in obtaining or renewing third party payor contracts for our products, we may experience reductions in sales levels and may fail to reach anticipated sales levels. If demand for our products exceeds our initial expectations or the ability of our suppliers to provide demand-meeting quantities of product and samples, our future ability to sell these products could be adversely impacted. The potential growth rate for our promoted products may be limited by slower growth for the class of drugs to which our promoted products belong and unfavorable clinical studies about such class of drugs.

We may encounter problems in the manufacture or supply of our products, for which we depend entirely on third parties. Strong competition exists in the sale of our promoted products, which could adversely affect expected growth of our promoted products' sales or increase our costs to sell our promoted products. We may not be able to protect our competitive position for our promoted products from patent infringers. If generic competitors that compete with any of our products are introduced, our revenues may be adversely affected.

Certain of our products have experienced manufacturing issues. If the issues recur and cannot be resolved, our ability to acquire product for sale and sampling will be adversely affected. We may incur unexpected costs in integrating new products into our operations.