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CONTACTS : Reiko Sato (Japan)
Y's Therapeutics Co., Ltd.
+011 81 3 5784-2762
media.relations@ysthera.com

Debra Bannister (US Media)
530 676-8001
debban@pacbell.net

Y's Therapeutics Appoints John Wulf as Head of U.S. Operations and Global Chief Business Officer
- Biotechnology Executive to Lead Worldwide Business Development Efforts -

Tokyo, Japan - Oct. 5, 2004 - Y's Therapeutics Co., Ltd, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that John J. Wulf has joined the company as President of its U.S. subsidiary, Y's Therapeutics, Inc., and as Chief Business Officer of Y's Therapeutics Co., Ltd. Mr. Wulf has more than 20 years of biotechnology industry experience from Genentech, Inc., Axys Pharmaceuticals (now Celera) and most recently, InterMune, Inc. He brings broad-based experience in strategic and corporate development and international business development as well as substantial operational expertise.

"We welcome Mr. Wulf to the Y's management team," said Mr. Masanori Murayama, Co-founder, President and CEO of Y's Therapeutics Co., Ltd. "He is uniquely qualified to lead our global efforts in both in-licensing products and technologies as well as partnering our programs. In addition, Mr. Wulf's extensive industry track record is ideally suited to direct the expansion of our U.S. operations."

"Y's Therapeutics has the right combination of product prospects, people with proven leadership skills, strong assets and a strategic focus on global drug development," commented Mr. Wulf. "I am very excited to be part of an international drug development company that is building a strong presence in the U.S., which is the most significant pharmaceutical market in the world."

Mr. Wulf was most recently Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at InterMune, Inc., where he built a business development/international operations group that sourced, negotiated, closed and managed more than a dozen transactions. Prior to that, Mr. Wulf was Vice President of Business Development at Axys Pharmaceuticals (which was acquired by Celera in 2001), where he helped to transform Axys from a research-driven company to a development-stage company with a focus in oncology. As Director of Business and Corporate Development at Genentech, Inc., among many other accomplishments, he helped to expand research and development by establishing several major significant research collaborations with biotech companies and academic institutions.

Mr. Wulf received his BA in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis; his MS in Microbiology from Oregon State University; and his MBA from San Francisco State University.

Y's Therapeutics, Inc. will be located in the San Francisco Bay Area in Burlingame, California. In addition to business development functions, the company expects U.S. operations to include non-clinical & clinical development functions, as well as in-house lab function capability to enhance drug development.

About Y's Therapeutics Co., Ltd.
Y's Therapeutics, www.ysthera.com, is a privately held biopharmaceutical company with a focus on the development of antibody therapeutics and small molecule drugs for cancer, immune diseases and inflammatory diseases. Y's Therapeutics has five projects in the portfolio, having sourced those seeds from academia. The company pursues co-research opportunities with academic institutions, as well as in-licensing opportunities from private sector firms for future candidate drug discovery. Y's Therapeutics takes forward development activities including generating therapeutic antibodies, production and formulation development, preclinical tests and clinical trials. Y's Therapeutics was founded in March 2003 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with subsidiary operations in the U.S. and Europe.

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