Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Announces Departure of Chief Operating Officer KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., March 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: MICU; Nuovo Mercato) today announced that Claudio Quarta, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. "Claudio has made an important contribution to Vicuron Pharmaceuticals from the original research collaboration with Biosearch Italia through our successful merger which created a transatlantic company focused on the discovery and development of novel anti-infectives," said George F. Horner III, Vicuron's president and chief executive officer. "His efforts have helped lay the ground-work for us to commercialize our anti-infective portfolio in the U.S. and Europe. We wish him well in his new endeavors." Dr. Quarta's former direct reports Giorgio Mosconi, M.D., Senior Vice President of Business Development, Robert Radie, Senior Vice President of Sales and Lyn Wiesinger, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Market Development will now report directly to Mr. Horner. About Vicuron Vicuron Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing vital medicine for seriously ill patients in North America and major countries in Europe. The company has filed a New Drug Application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its lead product, anidulafungin, a novel antifungal agent. The company's other lead product, dalbavancin, a novel intravenous antibiotic for the treatment of serious Gram-positive infections, is in Phase III clinical trials. The company's versatile research engine integrates industry-leading expertise in functional genomics, natural products discovery, mechanism-based drug design and combinatorial and medicinal chemistry. These approaches are yielding promising novel and next-generation compounds, many of which are in the later stages of preclinical development. In addition, the company has research and development collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer and Novartis. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that predict or describe future events or trends. The matters described in these forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond Vicuron's control. Vicuron faces many risks that could cause its actual performance to differ materially from the results predicted by its forward-looking statements, including the possibilities that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may delay declaring Vicuron's registration statement effective, if at all, clinical trials and the results thereof might be delayed, that the timing of the filing of any new drug application might be delayed, that subsequent clinical trials might indicate that a product candidate is unsafe or ineffective, that any filed new drug application may not be approved, thatongoing proprietary and collaborative research might not occur or yield useful results, that a third party may not be willing to license our product candidates on terms acceptable to us or at all, that competitors might develop superior substitutes fortheir products or market them more effectively, that a sales force may not be developed as contemplated and that one or more of its product candidates may not be commercialized successfully. The reports that Vicuron files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission contain a fuller description of these and many other risks to which Vicuron is subject. Because of those risks, Vicuron's actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from the results, performance or achievements contemplated by its forward-looking statement. The information set forth in this news release represents management's current expectations and intentions. Vicuron assumes no responsibility to issue updates to the forward-looking matters discussed in this news release. DATASOURCE: Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CONTACT: E. Blair Schoeb of Burns McClellan Inc., +1-415-362-5018, or , or Ian McConnell, Ph.D of WeissCom Partners, +1-610-205-2312, or , both for Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc.; or Dov A. Goldstein, M.D., of Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc., +1-212-213-0006, or Web site: http://www.vicuron.com/

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