LA JOLLA, Calif., Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the recent decline in
Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s (Nasdaq NNM: AGPH) shares, Peter Johnson,
President and CEO issued the following statement:
   "We are shocked by the magnitude of the devaluation of AGPH shares in
response to our decision to discontinue development of a cancer drug from
which most analysts were expecting a contribution to our profitability of
about 15 cents per share in the fiscal year 2000.
    It seems temporarily to have been forgotten that Agouron is the company
that took control of a research compound from which a major pharmaceutical
company had withdrawn financial support, successfully obtained FDA approval
after completing one of the fastest development programs in the history of the
US Pharmaceutical industry, and itself launched a drug in the US which after
seven months has overtaken its three competitors to become the leader of its
class in dollar market share, and appears to be on its way to generating
greater first year sales than any other product from the biotech industry.
    Every successful research-based pharmaceutical company must have a first
commercial product which stands alone until a second emerges.  For more than
ten years Agouron scientists have worked to assure that we will not remain a
one product company.  The breadth and diversification of Agouron's current
portfolio of R&D programs is a powerful hedge against the inevitability that
not every drug in research and development will succeed."
Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an integrated pharmaceutical company
committed to discovery, development, manufacturing, and marketing of small-
molecule drugs engineered to inactivate proteins which play key roles in
cancer, AIDS, and other serious diseases.
    For further information about Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., please see
Agouron's web site at http://www.agouron.com

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