Microcide Pharmaceuticals' CEO James Rurka and CFO Donald Huffman talk to The Wall...

Business Editors

This analyst interview is presented with the aforementioned company's full knowledge and permission.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2001

The Wall Street Transcript has published an in-depth interview with CEO James Rurka, and CFO Donald Huffman,

The entire 3,500-word interview is available free online at http://www.twst.com/ceos.htm

Rurka gives an overview of the company. "Microcide has the deepest and broadest discovery and early development capability in the antibiotics space. We're a company of about 110 employees today, with roughly 90 scientists, all dedicated to discovering new classes of antibiotics and antifungal products, as well as antiviral drugs, from the company's three major discovery technology platforms."

Rurka explains, "As we progress, we are implementing what we call forward integration at Microcide. Our forward integration strategy requires us to strengthen our downstream, late-stage preclinical, clinical and regulatory capability. As our pipeline of products emerges and we find ourselves with four or five products in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials just two years from now, being well armed with the skills necessary to execute on that strategy is probably the biggest challenge."

Looking forward, Huffman states, "Going forward, we expect royalties from the first products that we described, the cephalosporins, in the 2004/2005 time frame and acceleration of revenue growth from that point. We plan to maintain a strategy of some partnerships and also advancing programs on our own."

This interview is part of a 319-page JP Morgan H&Q Healthcare Conference Issue available at http://www.twst.com/info/info251.htm or by calling 212/952-7433

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