KineMed, Inc, announced today the appointment of Robert Stein, MD, PhD, as Chief Executive Officer of the Company, effective August 1, 2008, and Member of its Board of Directors. KineMed is a leader in translational medicine-based drug development. Its business model is to acquire and advance drugs to treat atherosclerosis by enhancing the body’s process of removing cholesterol from tissues and from the body.

Dr. Stein currently serves on the President’s Board of Advisors for Science and Innovation for the University of California and is Scientific Advisor to Takeda San Diego. From 2003-2006, Dr. Stein served as the Site President at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd’s Palo Alto facility. Prior to joining Roche, he was the President and Chief Scientific Officer at Incyte Corporation from 2001 to 2003. Dr. Stein also served in various roles for Merck & Co., Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc., the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company and DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company.

"Bob has a significant record of accomplishment at the highest levels in the pharmaceutical industry. He brings to KineMed an all-important insider’s view and experience of the corporate decision-making process. This insight should prove invaluable as we enter our next stage of transforming our drug development platform into a line of efficacious products in cardiovascular therapeutics. We are honored by Bob’s commitment to KineMed and look forward to working with him in the coming years,” said KineMed cofounders David Fineman and Marc Hellerstein, MD, PhD.

"While at Roche, Bob was a strong internal advocate for KineMed. As KineMed’s CEO, Bob’s mandate is to deepen our relationships with pharmaceutical companies and spearhead our drug development programs," continued Fineman.

Dr. Stein commented, "KineMed’s scientists have created powerful approaches to effective translational medicine that are applicable to pharmaceutical R&D in many areas of unmet medical need. KineMed's insights in the field of cholesterol metabolism are particularly keen and timely, given the complexity of the biology of atherosclerosis and the continuing medical need for therapies that shrink atherosclerotic plaques, not merely slow their rates of progression. KineMed's expertise in the field of High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) pathobiology and Reverse Cholesterol Transport (RCT, a process used by the body to "unload" cholesterol from atherosclerotic plaques) has impelled many larger pharmaceutical companies to seek access to the KineMed tools to evaluate their potential medicines.

"While we will continue to work with pharmaceutical collaborators to strengthen and de-risk their pipelines, we have now embarked on a new path of developing our own compounds. Using our powerful, proprietary approaches to identify and de-risk new medicines that modulate HDL function, KineMed is building an early and mid-staged development portfolio of potential treatments to reverse the ravages of atherosclerosis.

"KineMed is uniquely positioned to do very rapid and informative studies that quickly identify future winners and cull future losers, at a fraction of the costs facing the industry. Positive results in KineMed's translational studies should dramatically increase the chances of compounds succeeding in large scale, long, and very expensive trials with morbidity and mortality endpoints and will dramatically increase the attractiveness of qualifying compounds to prospective pharmaceutical partners.

"I am very enthusiastic about what KineMed has built and look forward to leading the Company in this exciting evolution.” Mr. Fineman will continue in his capacity as Chairman and President, and Dr. Hellerstein will continue in his role as Chair of KineMed’s SAB and technical innovator of KineMed’s offerings.

Dr. Stein received degrees in biology and chemistry from Indiana University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and an MD and a PhD in physiology and pharmacology from Duke University. Dr. Stein completed residency training and is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology.

About KineMed
KineMed, Inc. ("KineMed" or the "Company") is a drug discovery and development company employing its proprietary translational medicine technology (AquaTag™ and KineMarker™) to both identify active drug candidates preclinically and confirm their therapeutic activity and dose response in first-in-man studies. KineMed's technology expedites the drug development process and provides real-time insight into conditions including metabolic disorders, cancer, and diseases of inflammation and neurodegeneration.

KineMed is working to develop drugs both on its own and with pharmaceutical collaborators in therapeutic focus areas where it can demonstrate functional modulation of specific biological pathways that mediate disease. The Company has multiple development programs with more than a dozen major pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer, Merck, Merck KGaA, Organon and Roche.

For further information about KineMed, please visit: http://www.kinemed.com/

CONTACT: David Fineman, President & Chairman, dfineman@kinemed.com