Business Editors and Health Writers

SAN DIEGO, CA - August 5, 1997 (Business Wire) - Structural Bioinformatics Inc., (SBI) of San Diego and BioChem Therapeutic Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Biochem Pharma (Montreal Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange: BCH, NASDAQ: BCHE) of Laval, Quebec, Canada, have signed an agreement to collaborate on drug discovery and design, using breakthrough proprietary computational technologies owned by SBI. Under the terms of the agreement, SBI will apply its proprietary genomics-driven/protein structure-based drug design algorithms to facilitate the rapid design and identification of small molecules for two targets selected by BioChem. The resulting drugs are expected to be useful in the treatment of Hepatitis C, and in some forms of cancer. BioChem will contribute its drug development know-how and will fund the research and make milestone and royalty payments.

"We are very excited about the drug development synergy that this collaboration will create," stated Dr Edward T. Maggio, President and Chief Executive Officer of Structural Bioinformatics Inc. "BioChem Therapeutic's drug optimization expertise is a perfect extension of Structural Bioinformatics' computer-assisted drug design capabilities."

"BioChem Therapeutic is dedicated to the development of novel, small molecule antiviral and anticancer drugs," said Michael G. Grey, President of BioChem Therapeutic Inc. "This agreement with Structural Bioinformatics will complement and accelerate our drug discovery efforts."

Structural Bioinformatics Inc., a private company based in San Diego, CA, has developed an accelerated structure-based lead discovery pathway to generate small-molecule lead compounds for important disease genes and other pharmaceutically interesting targets. The pathway relies on SBI's extensive protein structural information database that is tightly integrated with a proprietary set of computational tools. The resulting operating system permits the identification and dynamic structural analysis of relevant sites on protein drug targets, and the direct use of this information in a variety of structure-based drug design and virtual screening applications.

BioChem Pharma Inc. is an international biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the research, development and commercialization of innovative products for the prevention, detection and treatment of human diseases. The Company's shares are traded on the Montreal and Toronto stock exchanges (BCH) and on the NASDAQ National Market (BCHE).