Business Editors and Health Writers 

SAN DIEGO, CA   August 8,  1997 - Privately held Structural Bioinformatics Inc. ("SBI") of San Diego, California successfully closed a $5 million financing on August 7th including over subscriptions by first round investors.  This new round of financing was led by Biotechnology Development Fund of Palo Alto, California. Other major SBI investors include New York Life, E.J. Financial, Ms. Nina Kung Wang of Hong Kong, and others.

Edward T. Maggio, President and CEO of SBI says, "It's gratifying to have enthusiastic support from both the original and new investors. This round of financing places us right on track for the planned expansions in 1997 and 1998. It's a vote of confidence for our plan and our technology. It's particularly exciting coming so close on the heels of our first major corporate deal, our collaboration with BioChem Pharma, signed just a few days ago."

The additional funding will allow for expansion of the company's computational infrastructure in anticipation of upcoming database, technology and drug discovery service offerings.

Structural Bioinformatics has developed a supercomputational operating system making possible the immediate and practical use of genomic (gene sequence) data in a broad range of structure-based drug discovery and design processes leading to the rapid design and identification of small molecule lead compounds. SBI is building corporate partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, gene discovery companies, and combinatorial chemistry companies ranging from broad technology collaborations to assistance with specific drug targets or target groups.