LA JOLLA, Calif., Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc.
(Nasdaq: SIBI) today announced that on Friday, December 18, 1998, a jury in
the United States District Court for the Southern District of California
returned a verdict in favor of SIBIA in its patent infringement suit against
Cadus Pharmaceutical Corporation (Nasdaq: KDUS).  The jury awarded the full
amount of the damages, $18 million, requested by SIBIA.  SIBIA asserted eleven
claims of U.S. patent 5,401,629 ("629") against Cadus.  The jury found that
the methods used by Cadus infringed all eleven claims of the patent asserted
by SIBIA and that the patent was valid and enforceable.
    SIBIA's 629 patent claims various methods for identifying compounds which
interact with cell surface proteins such as receptors and ion channels.  The
patented methods rely upon a biological response through a reporter gene to
detect compounds of interest.
    "After an extensive six-week trial, the jury unanimously upheld the
validity of our patent.  In awarding the damages, the jury recognized the
value of the patented method for drug discovery.  We believe that this
technology is being used by a number of biotechnology and pharmaceutical
companies.  Now that the jury has resolved Cadus' challenges to the 629
patent, we are reassessing the value of the 629 patent and intend to
vigorously pursue licensing and enforcement of this patent," said William T.
Comer, Ph.D., SIBIA's President and Chief Executive Officer.
    The jury found that Cadus' collaborators, Bristol-Myers Squibb and
SmithKline Beecham, directly infringed SIBIA's patent and that Cadus had
induced and further contributed to infringement of SIBIA's patent by
Bristol-Myers Squibb and SmithKline Beecham.  At a hearing set for January 15,
1999, SIBIA intends to seek a permanent injunction against Cadus' continued
use of its infringing drug assays as well as its efforts to contribute to or
induce infringement by Bristol-Myers Squibb and SmithKline Beecham.
    SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc. is engaged in the discovery and development of
novel small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative,
neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders, many of which have large patient
populations and represent critical unmet medical needs.  SIBIA is a leader in
the development of proprietary drug discovery platforms that combine key tools
necessary for modern drug discovery, including genomics, high throughput
screening, advanced combinatorial chemistry techniques and pharmacology.  The
Company's proprietary molecular targets and drug candidates, together with its
drug discovery technologies and research expertise, have enabled the Company
to establish several corporate collaborations, which currently include
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd., and multiple
technology licensing arrangements.
    This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties.  As a result, actual results could differ materially from
those discussed herein.  These risks and uncertainties include SIBIA's
reliance on corporate partnerships and ability to enter into new corporate
partnerships and licensing agreements, whether SIBIA will be able to meet its
development goals with respect to its drug candidates and proprietary targets,
SIBIA's early stage of development, the new and uncertain state of SIBIA's
technologies, SIBIA's future capital needs and the uncertainty of receiving
additional funding, uncertainties regarding patents and proprietary rights,
uncertainties regarding the outcome of any future litigation and other
research, development and market risks.  These and other risks and
uncertainties are more fully set forth in SIBIA's most recently filed Forms
10-Q and 10-K.

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