Myriad Genetics and Biosearch Italia Form Drug Discovery Collaboration; Myriad to Screen Biosearch's Library of Natural Products

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Myriad Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MYGN), and Biosearch Italia (Nuovo Mercato: BIO.MI) have formed a collaboration to discover novel therapeutic compounds, the Company announced today. Biosearch Italia will provide Myriad with access to its natural product compound library. Myriad will select promising drug targets, develop high-throughput screening assays, and screen the assays against Biosearch Italia's natural product libraries.

"This collaboration is an exciting opportunity to discover novel drugs through analysis of naturally occurring bioactive compounds," said Adrian Hobden, President of Myriad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "The combination of Myriad's novel validated drug targets and Biosearch's proprietary natural products libraries may lead to the development of new therapeutics to treat a variety of important diseases."

Each year, Myriad discovers a large number of promising drug targets in important disease fields using its proprietary proteomic and biopharmaceutical technologies. Myriad will select a small number of these targets for screening against Biosearch's natural product libraries. Over 120 currently prescribed drugs, developed by pharmaceutical companies, were first extracted from natural sources. These include Taxol (from the Pacific Yew Tree), Lovastatin (from an Aspergillus mold), aspirin (from willow bark), and the anticancer drugs vinblastine and vincristine (from a species of periwinkle). This natural product collaboration will supplement the high-throughput screening performed by Myriad on its targets with the Company's existing library of over 200,000 small molecular weight compounds.

"Myriad's collection of drug targets represents an ideal resource for screening against our bioactive compound libraries," said Francesco Parenti, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Biosearch Italia. "This collaboration will enable Biosearch to recognise value from our natural product library outside our core focus of anti-infectives discovery and development."

Biosearch Italia is a leading European biotech specializing in the identification of novel chemicals from natural sources such as bacteria and fungi. Bioactive chemicals from these sources represent potential drugs to treat a wide range of diseases. Biosearch libraries contain over 100,000 such extracts and purified chemicals. Biosearch was established in 1996 following a management-buy-out of the Lepetit Research Center in Gerenzano, northern Italy, from Hoechst Marion Roussel.

Myriad Genetics, Inc. is a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel healthcare products. The Company has established two wholly owned subsidiaries. Myriad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. develops and intends to market therapeutic products, and Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc. develops and markets proprietary predictive medicine and personalized medicine products. The Company has established strategic alliances with Bayer, Eli Lilly, Hitachi, Novartis, Oracle, Pharmacia, Roche, Schering AG, Schering-Plough and Syngenta.

The discussion in this news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including statements relating to Myriad's activities under the collaboration and the potential development of new therapeutics. Such statements are based on management's current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth or implied by forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to uncertainties as to the extent of future government regulation of Myriad Genetics' business, uncertainties as to whether Myriad Genetics and its collaborators will be successful in developing, and obtaining regulatory approval for, and commercial acceptance of, therapeutics; the risk that markets will not exist for therapeutic compounds that Myriad Genetics develops or if such markets exist, that Myriad Genetics will not be able to sell compounds, which it develops, at acceptable prices. These and other risks identified in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001. All information in this press release is as of November 27, 2001, and Myriad undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law. SOURCE Myriad Genetics, Inc.

CONTACT: William A. Hockett, Vice President of Corporate Communications of Myriad Genetics, Inc., +1-801-584-3600, bhockett@myriad.com