Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Announces Data at ICAAC Supporting Next-Generation Lincosamide Program Lead Product Candidate to Enter Clinic in the First Half of Next Year KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: MICU; Nuovo Mercato) today announced that research generated from its internal discovery program supports further development of VIC-5555, its lead novel lincosamide. This next generation clindamycin antibiotic, a part of an ongoing lincosamide program, has demonstrated improved in vivo efficacy, potency and dosing. The strong array of preclinical data was presented at the 44th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) meeting in Washington, D.C. this past weekend. "Although the data is early, we believe it shows the promise of the lincosamide program to address anaerobic infections and again demonstrate Vicuron's internal research engine's strength in producing promising product candidates," Richard J. White, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Vicuron. "We expect to move the initial product candidate from this program into the clinic in the first half of next year. We feel that our approach to discovery will continue to yield promising next-generation compounds for both hospital-based and community-acquired infections." Highlights of the oral presentation and nine poster presentations indicated that the company's lead lincosamide product candidate, VIC-5555, has: - good in vitro activity; and - excellent in vivo properties including superior efficacy over clindamycin in experimental Staphylococcus aureus, Steptoccus pneumoniae and Bacteroides fragilis. About Lincosamide Program Vicuron is developing next-generation lincosamides, a class of antibiotics which show excellent anaerobe and Gram-positive activity. The current lincosamide of choice is clindamycin which requires dosing two to four times a day and shows poor activity against enterococci. VIC-5555 is the lincosamide program's most advanced next-generation clindamycin. It has potential for improved efficacy and potency with an improved dosing regimen. This product candidate has potential applications in primary hospital indications such as intraabdominal and skin and soft tissue infections. About Vicuron Vicuron Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing vital medicine for seriously ill patients. In May 2004, Vicuron received an approvable letter from the FDA for its lead product anidulafungin for the treatment of esophageal candidiasis. The company's other lead product, dalbavancin, a novel intravenous antibiotic for the treatment of serious Gram-positive infections, has completed Phase 3 clinical trials. The company's versatile research engine integrates industry-leading expertise in functional genomics, natural products discovery, mechanism-based drug design and combinatorial and medicinal chemistry. These approaches are yielding promising novel and next- generation compounds, many of which are in the later stages of preclinical development. In addition, the company has research and development collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer and Novartis. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that predict or describe future events or trends. The matters described in these forward- looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond Vicuron's control. Vicuron faces many risks that could cause its actual performance to differ materially from the results predicted by its forward-looking statements, including the possibilities that clinical trials and the results thereof might be delayed, or unsuccessful, that the timing of the filing of any new drug application or any amendment to a new drug application might be delayed, that clinical trials might indicate that a product candidate is unsafe or ineffective, that the FDA might require additional information to be submitted and additional actions to be taken before it will make any decision, that any filed new drug application may not be approved by the FDA, that ongoing proprietary and collaborative research might not occur or yield useful results, that the pipeline may not yield a new clinical candidate or a commercial product, that a third party may not be willing to license our product candidates on terms acceptable to us or at all, that competitors might develop superior substitutes for Vicuron's products or market these competitive products more effectively, that a sales force may not be developed as contemplated and that one or more of Vicuron's product candidates may not be commercialized successfully. The reports that Vicuron files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission contain a fuller description of these and many other risks to which Vicuron is subject. Because of those risks, Vicuron's actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from the results, performance or achievements contemplated by its forward- looking statement. The information set forth in this news release represents management's current expectations and intentions. Vicuron assumes no responsibility to issue updates to the forward-looking matters discussed in this news release. DATASOURCE: Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. CONTACT: Dov A. Goldstein, M.D. of Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc., +1-610-205-2312, or ; or Hala Mirza of WeissComm Partners, +1-212-204-2080, or , or Aline Schimmel of Burns McClellan Inc., +1-212-213-0006, or , both for Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Web site: http://www.vicuron.com/

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