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To: puborectalis who wrote (55758)	8/13/1999 8:41:00 AM
From: Teri Garner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 120523

Millennium Delivers Two Cancer Drug Candidate Genes: Thursday August 12, 2:45 pm Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Millennium Delivers Two Cancer Drug Candidate Genes to Eli Lilly - Delivery of Candidate Genes in Prostate Cancer and Drug Resistance Trigger Milestone Payments - CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM - news) today announced that one of its partners in oncology, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY - news), has accepted two candidate genes for use in the development of new small-molecule cancer therapeutics. These achievements trigger two undisclosed milestone payments from Lilly to Millennium. The candidate genes represent a significant advance in the understanding of prostate cancer and may ultimately yield improvements in the treatment of the disease. The first candidate gene plays a role in the resistance of tumor cells to drugs. The second candidate gene is found in a pathway that impacts the ability of prostate cancer to grow in the absence of androgen. Cancers are difficult to treat, in part because they have highly sophisticated ways of evading even the most effective therapies. Treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation can be effective initially but, in many cases, the tumor eventually becomes resistant to treatment, resulting in a relapse. The Millennium-Lilly oncology alliance seeks approaches to minimizing this resistance. ''The presentation of these two important candidates illustrates the continued success of our partnership in oncology with Lilly. Our integrated science and technology platform has enabled us to efficiently identify and provide novel genes for important areas of oncology research,'' said Robert Tepper, M.D., chief scientific officer of Millennium. ''By elucidating the mechanisms through which tumors become resistant to drugs, we hope to forge an accelerated path to new and more effective cancer treatments.'' In April 1996, Millennium and Lilly entered into a strategic alliance in oncology. Lilly renewed the agreement earlier this year based on Millennium's successful employment of its efficient gene discovery and validation process and the resulting pipeline of novel genes and targets for drug discovery. The two companies also have a strategic alliance in atherosclerosis and congestive heart failure. Millennium, a leading drug discovery and development company, employs large-scale genetics, genomics, high throughput screening and informatics in an integrated science and technology platform. This innovative drug discovery platform is applied across the entire healthcare sector, from gene identification through patient management, to accelerate and transform the discovery and development of proprietary therapeutic and diagnostic products and services. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Millennium and its affiliates currently employ more than 800 people. This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward looking statements include uncertainties relating to gene identification, drug discovery and clinical development processes; changes in relationships with strategic partners and dependence upon strategic partners for the performance of critical activities under collaborative agreements; the impact of competitive products and technological changes; uncertainties relating to patent protection and regulatory approval; and uncertainties relating to the ability of Millennium and its affiliates to obtain the substantial additional funds required for progress in drug discovery and development. The factors that could affect the performance of Millennium are more fully described in filings by Millennium with the Securities and Exchange Commission including but not limited to the factors set forth under the heading ''Business - Factors That May Affect Results'' in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Millennium for the year ended December 31, 1998 as filed on March 24, 1999. Note: This release is available on Millennium's home page at: mlnm.com .