Contacts:
Roche Bioscience
Nancy Peterson
Vice President
Communications & Public Affairs
Phone: (415) 855-5567
Fax: (415) 855-5526
E-Mail: nancy.peterson@roche.com

CombiChem
Susanne Friestedt
Friestedt International
(619) 223-8844

Vicente Anido, Jr., Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
President
CombiChem, Inc.
(619) 530-0484

SAN DIEGO, Calif. , and PALO ALTO, Calif., November 6, 1996 -- CombiChem, Inc. and Roche Bioscience today announced the commencement of a major collaboration involving multiple drug discovery targets.

The companies will initially collaborate on three projects -- one each in lead generation, lead evolution and lead optimization. According to the terms of the agreement, the collaboration may expand to include additional projects in the future. While specific financial terms were not disclosed, Roche Bioscience made an upfront payment to CombiChem and will provide research funding and performance-based milestone payments. Roche Bioscience retains exclusive global rights to develop and market the products resulting from the collaboration and CombiChem will receive royalty payments on marketed products.

"The diverse array of targets we selected for this collaboration are aimed at bringing a number of novel therapeutic entities to the market," said Robert Booth, Ph.D., senior vice president and head of the Inflammatory Diseases Business Unit at Roche Bioscience. "We expect that CombiChem's Drug Discovery Engine and Universal Informer Library (TM) will add a powerful new technology to our drug discovery process and enable us to discover, evolve, and optimize lead compounds within significantly shorter periods of time."

Vicente Anido, Jr., Ph.D., chief executive officer and president of CombiChem said, "The agreement with Roche Bioscience is significant because it is a clear affirmation from a major multi-national pharmaceutical company that it has confidence in CombiChem's Drug Discovery Engine and its integration of medicinal chemistry with small library design technology. The most comprehensive and extensive agreement for CombiChem to date, this is the first step in what we expect will be a long-term relationship between our company and Roche Bioscience. "

CombiChem, Inc., founded in 1994, is a privately held company with headquarters in San Diego, Calif. CombiChem accelerates drug discovery through the integration of medicinal chemistry and small library design technology.

Located in Palo Alto, Calif., Roche Bioscience is a research-based, business-oriented enterprise dedicated to the discovery and early clinical development of innovative prescription drugs. Roche Bioscience is a member of the Roche Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.