SAN DIEGO, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Concurrently with the occupation of the company's new facilities in San Diego, TargeGen, Inc. has announced the following recent appointments:

-- Wood C. Erwin, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer - Mr. Erwin has 25 years of experience as a financial executive in industry and biotechnology with over 20 years in CFO capacities. He joins TargeGen from Maxia Pharmaceuticals where he served as CFO. Mr. Erwin received an MBA in Finance from The University of Tennessee and is a CPA and CMA.

-- Wolfgang Wrasidlo, Ph.D. - Senior Director, Chemistry - Dr. Wrasidlo received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from The University of Erlangen (Germany). Dr. Wrasidlo previously was a founder and Head of Research at Brunswick Biotechnetics (La Jolla).

-- John Doukas, Ph.D. - Senior Director, Cardiovascular Program - Dr. Doukas joins TargeGen from Selective Genetics. Dr. Doukas received his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Boston University.

-- John Hood, Ph.D. - Director, Research - Dr. Hood received his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from Texas A&M University and performed post-doctoral work in the laboratories of Dr. David A. Cheresh at The Scripps Research Institute.

-- Glenn Noronha, Ph.D. - Senior Scientist, Chemistry - Dr. Noronha joins TargeGen from Minimed (Medtronic). He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and conducted post-doctoral research at The University of California - Irvine.

-- Mauricio Rosenfeld - Laboratory Operations Manager - Mr. Rosenfeld received his B.A. in General Biology from The University of California San Diego. Before joining TargeGen, he served as a Laboratory Manager at The Scripps Research Institute.

"We are pleased that we have made substantial progress toward assembling a top tier scientific and management team capable of executing our ambitious drug development objectives," stated Peter G. Ulrich, President and CEO of TargeGen. "In the coming months, we expect to round out the senior management group, add additional scientific staff and continue to build our Board and Scientific Advisory Board".

About TargeGen, Inc.
TargeGen, Inc. is a privately held vascular biology focused biopharmaceutical company established in July 2001. TargeGen is developing targeted gene and non gene-based therapeutics to treat cancer (solid tumors), ischemic disease (stroke, heart attack) and other major diseases by regulating the processes associated with new blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) and vascular permeability (VP). In March 2002, TargeGen executed a comprehensive licensing agreement with Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany). This agreement provides TargeGen with access to a portfolio of intellectual property in the field of vascular biology. Also in March 2002, TargeGen completed a $10M Series "A" financing. The funding round was led by Forward Ventures (San Diego), with significant participation by Enterprise Partners (La Jolla) and other investors.

SOURCE: TargeGen, Inc. - 06/06/2002
CONTACT: Peter G. Ulrich, President & CEO of TargeGen, Inc., +1-858-678-0760 ext. 231
WEBSITE: http://www.targegen.com