BioCentury and Thomson Financial Reach Milestone With 15th Annual Future Leaders in the Biotech Industry Conference

BioCentury Publications, Inc. and Thomson Financial announced today the 36 companies selected to present at Future Leaders in the Biotech Industry conference on March 27 in New York, marking the 15th year of service Future Leaders has provided to the biotech industry and its partners in the financial community.

The one-day conference is a turf-neutral gathering for Wall Street's biotech investors who want to examine independently vetted investment opportunities in the biotech industry. Future Leaders companies are screened using Thomson Financial and BioCentury's industry analysts and databases. The result is a carefully selected mix of companies with proof-of-principle science and near-to-market milestones, backed by proven fundraising ability and key partnerships. This year's Presenting Companies represent fresh stories in the fields of cancer, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal conditions, metabolic disorders and neurology.

Over a decade and a half, Future Leaders has showcased a slate of more than 400 independently selected private and public biotechs to a diverse industry audience, including active healthcare investors, buyside and sellside analysts, the banking community and business development executives.

"Biotech industry investors and analysts come to Future Leaders quite simply because they trust our intelligence and know our rigorous selection process provides a highly efficient opportunity to target and network with investor-validated companies in one location, on one day," said BioCentury Publisher Eric Pierce.

"BioCentury and Thomson Financial are in the businesses of providing industry intelligence in our respective areas of expertise, and neither of us makes buy or sell recommendations on individual stocks," Mr. Pierce added. "This lends further credibility to the turf-neutral nature of the conference, and is why Future Leaders draws a true cross-section of investors and analysts."

This year's Future Leaders have attracted nearly $1.5 billion in capital since 2007, on top of $797 million raised in 2006, and are advancing product candidates through more than 60 mid- and late-stage clinical trials. The Future Leaders Class of 2008 expects six product approvals this year and plans to report clinical data on at least 38 prospective products, including late-stage data from 11 Phase III trials and 22 Phase II trials.

The 2008 roster, listed below, features several members of the IPO class of 2007, including Biodel Inc., BioLineRx Ltd., Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp., and Targanta Therapeutics Corp. Collectively, the newly public companies at Future Leaders raised more than $409 million in their market debuts.

"Future Leaders provides companies with unmatched visibility among top decision makers on Wall Street and in the biopharma industry. What's more, the conference delivers tremendous value to the institutional investment community by identifying those companies that are best positioned to provide market leadership," said Laura Berezin, Partner at long-time sponsor Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, the national law firm that will serve again as the Gold Sponsor.

Diversity of Top Sponsors Validate Conference Value

In addition to Gold Sponsor Cooley Godward Kronish, the prestigious group of 2008 Sponsors includes leaders from both the public and private capital markets: Alta Partners, Domain Associates, GE Healthcare Financial Services -- Life Science Finance, JMP Securities, Kingsbridge Capital, MPM Capital, NYSE Euronext, Oppenheimer & Co., OrbiMed Advisors, Pacific Growth Equities, Punk Ziegel & Co., RBC Capital Markets and Rodman & Renshaw.

2008 Presenting Companies

The following companies will present at the conference next week (* = publicly traded companies):

Accentia Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (*)       MacroGenics Inc.
Ambit Biosciences Corp.                    Microbia Inc.
ARCA Discovery Inc.                        NeurAxon Inc.
AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc.                  Neuromed Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Biodel Inc.(*)                             Novalar Pharmaceuticals Inc.
BioLineRx Ltd.(*)                          Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.(*)
BioMS Medical Corp.(*)                     Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Cell Genesys Inc.(*)                       Pharmacopeia Inc.(*)
Ceregene Inc.                              Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Cerimon Pharmaceuticals Inc.               Regado Biosciences Inc.
Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd.(*) SGX Pharmaceuticals Inc. (*)
Cogentus Pharmaceuticals Inc.              Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. (*)
CombinatoRx Inc.(*)                        Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (*)
Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc.(*)           Targanta Therapeutics Corp. (*)
deCODE genetics Inc.(*)                    Tercica Inc. (*)
EntreMed Inc.(*)                           Transcept Pharmaceuticals Inc.
KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc.              Vivus Inc. (*)
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc.(*)            Xencor Inc.

This premier Wall Street event is one of two annual conferences organized by BioCentury and Thomson Financial. The next conference, NewsMakers in the Biotech Industry, will take place in New York in September 2008.