Hydra Biosciences Bolsters Discovery and IP Capabilities with Key Additions to Executive Management Team

Business Wire, Oct 24, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Hydra Biosciences, a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel drugs using its expertise in Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) ion channels, announced today the expansion of its executive management team with the appointments of David Kimball, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer and Christine Bellon, Ph.D. as Vice President of IP and Legal Affairs. Dr. Kimball most recently served as Senior Vice President, Discovery, at Pharmacopeia. Dr. Bellon joins Hydra from Infinity Pharmaceuticals, where she served as Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property.

"We are excited to add the demonstrated scientific, business and legal acumen of Christine and David to an already talented management team, and believe their appointments are indicative of the broader near-term growth potential for our organization," said Russell Herndon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hydra. "David and Christine will each play a key role in advancing and building upon the strong IP position of our deep and competitively differentiated pipeline of TRP ion channel antagonists and agonists in development for the treatment of pain, inflammatory disease, pulmonary dysfunction, and other indications."

Dr. Kimball joins Hydra with 25 years of experience in the discovery and development of small molecule drug candidates. At Pharmacopeia Dr. Kimball was responsible for research alliances as well as drug discovery research from target identification through preclinical development. During his six years at Lexicon, Dr. Kimball built the company's discovery capability with direct responsibility for Lexicon's small molecule pipeline. Dr. Kimball grew and managed an organization of over 75 chemists, including medicinal, analytical, computational, process research and development, library synthesis and outsourcing chemistry. Prior to joining Lexicon, Dr. Kimball spent nearly 20 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute, most recently as Research Fellow in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry. During his tenure at BMS, Dr. Kimball led several significant drug discovery and development research efforts that culminated in clinical compounds. An Associate Member of the graduate faculty at Rutgers University School of Pharmacy since 1989, Dr. Kimball received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry/Chemical Biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Dr. Bellon brings more than 15 years of experience in intellectual property law to Hydra. Dr. Bellon came to Hydra from Infinity Pharmaceuticals, where she held the position of Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property. Prior to her position at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Bellon served as patent counsel at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the company's small molecule cardiovascular and metabolic disease patent portfolio and structural biology patent portfolio. Earlier in her career, Dr. Bellon was an attorney in the Boston office of Fish & Richardson P.C., where her practice focused on patent prosecution and client counseling in the areas of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, polymers, and biotechnology. Dr. Bellon received a B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University, and holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. degree from Columbia Law School.

About TRP Ion Channels

Ion channels have been implicated in many diseases, including hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, gastrointestinal disorders, cystic fibrosis and pathological pain. Many drugs on the market today act on ion channels, either directly or indirectly, including calcium channel blockers for hypertension and angina, and sodium channel blockers for pain. Hydra's TRP channel discovery program has identified numerous modulators predicted to impact diseases such as pain and inflammation, hypertension, and pulmonary diseases. Many of these modulators have been shown to be efficacious in animal models of disease. In addition, ion channels have been successful drug targets, with modulators of ion flux representing up to 17% of world pharmaceutical sales.

About Hydra Biosciences

Hydra Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, develops novel drugs to treat pain, inflammation, cardiovascular and other diseases using its expertise in novel ion channels. Hydra's proprietary high throughput screening platforms enable the company to identify and develop drug candidates that address significant unmet medical needs. More information about Hydra Biosciences is available at: www.hydrabiosciences.com.