Advinus Therapeutics Achieves Milestone in Drug Discovery and Clinical Development Collaboration

Bangalore, India, June 30, 2010 - Advinus Therapeutics, Ltd., today announced they have achieved the first success-based milestone in the drug discovery and clinical development collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (Janssen). The original agreement between the parties was assigned to Janssen Pharmaceutica, N.V. by an affiliate, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The companies have been working together since September 2008 to develop drug candidates for various disease targets. Under the collaboration, Advinus is responsible for drug discovery and early clinical development while Janssen retains the option to advance the drug candidates into late-stage clinical trials and worldwide commercialization.

"The achievement of this milestone emphasizes Advinus'' commitment to explore novel approaches to discover innovative life-saving medicines for unmet clinical needs" said Dr. Kasim Mookhtiar, CSO and Head Drug Discovery, Advinus Therapeutics. He further added that the achievement of the milestone also highlights India''s emerging strength in drug discovery.

About Advinus

Advinus Therapeutics, A TATA Enterprise, is a 5-year-old company conceived to be a front-runner from India in the Pharmaceutical R&D space. The company is co-founded and led by executives with extensive international experience in pharma R&D. The company is also the first of its kind in India to offer end-to-end development services to the global pharmaceutical, agrochemical and biotechnology industries while creating long-term value through internal and collaborative drug discovery programs. The primary focus of the company''s discovery efforts are in metabolic diseases and inflammatory diseases. Advinus is also pursuing the discovery of new drug treatments for neglected (for developing world) diseases. Advinus'' drug development operations support and supplement client resources at increased levels of efficiency by providing services in all areas of pre- and early clinical and pharmaceutical development. For company information, visit Advinus at www.advinus.com.