Launch of Crystal Bank

Sareum Holdings PLC 01 September 2005 For immediate release 1 September 2005 SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC ("Sareum" or "The Company") Launch of Crystal Bank to Accelerate Structure-Based Drug Discovery Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug discovery and services business, is pleased to announce the launch of "Crystal Bank", a highly valuable resource to accelerate drug discovery by rapidly accessing protein structure data. Sareum's Crystal Bank is a unique and expanding collection of therapeutically relevant protein targets on which the Company is able to rapidly generate structural data that illustrates the precise nature of how potential drug candidates associate with a target protein. This valuable information assists the accelerated discovery of improved therapies against many important diseases including cancer, inflammation and metabolic disorders. Commenting on the announcement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell, said: "This exciting new extension to our capabilities provides us with an important additional source of revenues, and very effectively demonstrates our success in solving the structures of therapeutically relevant proteins, a key component of our core drug discovery business." For further information: Sareum Holdings 01223 497700 Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000 Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson Notes for editors: About Sareum Holdings plc Sareum Holdings plc is a specialist structure-based drug discovery and services business headquartered in Cambridge, UK. The Company was formed in August 2003 to discover new drugs for the treatment of cancer and to provide a range of drug discovery services to the pharmaceutical industry. Sareum's unique approach aims to halve the time it takes to discover new drug candidates. Structure-based drug discovery involves the determination of a disease causing protein's three-dimensional structure. Once the structure is known, novel chemical entities are designed to 'lock-in' to the protein with the aim of reversing or arresting a disease's progression. Sareum's approach to structure-based drug discovery is to produce multiple recombinant proteins primarily through its unique baculovirus expression system; determine their structure using x-ray crystallography; and then use its innovative template-molecule x-ray screening technology to identify new chemical entities designed to interact with the target protein. Sareum then uses its high-throughput medicinal chemistry platform to rapidly synthesise further molecules and develop the most promising into potential drug candidates. Sareum provides its specialist drug discovery capabilities to partners in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The Company aims to successfully deliver: Programmes for complete gene-to-candidate structure-based discovery; projects to accelerate or improve the productivity of specific activities; and drug candidates for licensing at the Phase I or Phase II clinical trials stage. Sareum joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 and trades under the symbol SAR. For further information, please visit www.sareum.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange RR