SYNERGY VACCINES ANNOUNCES ISSUANCE OF AUSTRALIAN PATENT FOR SYNERVAX TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., June 12, 2003

Synergy Vaccines, Inc. announced today that the Australian Patent Office has issued Australian Patent 754988, entitled "Immune Response Modulator Alpha-2-Macroglobulin Complex" to Duke University, Durham, NC., for inventions created by two of its Medical Center employees, Drs. Salvatore Pizzo and Hanne Grøn. The number of granted claims in the above-mentioned patent is 74. As the exclusive licensee of worldwide rights to the technology disclosed in this patent, Synergy strengthens its position in the vaccine market through the usage of the complexes of antigens and alpha-2-Macroglobulin (SynerVax adjuvant) as vaccine candidates.

Synergy Vaccines, Inc. announced today that the Australian Patent Office has issued Australian Patent 754988, entitled "Immune Response Modulator Alpha-2-Macroglobulin Complex" to Duke University, Durham, NC., for inventions created by two of its Medical Center employees, Drs. Salvatore Pizzo and Hanne Grøn. The number of granted claims in the above-mentioned patent is 74. As the exclusive licensee of worldwide rights to the technology disclosed in this patent, Synergy strengthens its position in the vaccine market through the usage of the complexes of antigens and alpha-2-Macroglobulin (SynerVax adjuvant) as vaccine candidates.

Synergy Vaccines is currently evaluating the use of the SynerVax adjuvant system with a wide variety of vaccine candidates including preventive vaccines for AIDS, infectious diseases and biological agents as well as therapeutic vaccines for cancer, Alzheimers'disease and hepatitis. This research is being conducted both by Synergy and in collaboration with a number of academic and industry investigators. Antigens complexed within SynerVax adjuvant have been shown to be much more immunogenic than antigens delivered with other adjuvant systems (Vaccine 20:554-562, 2001; Vaccine 20:2396-2403, 2002) and since SynerVax adjuvant is entirely natural there is little or no reactogenicity associated with its use.

Richard M. Mueller, CEO of Synergy, states: "Issuance of this patent to Duke University further confirms the uniqueness of the chemistry, developed by Drs. Pizzo and Grøn, which allows us to incorporate a wide variety of subunit vaccine candidates into alpha-2-Macroglobulin (SynerVax adjuvant) with minimal disturbance to the natural structure of these proteins or peptides. The use of SynerVax adjuvant with subunit vaccine candidates should facilitate the development of safer and more cost-effective vaccines for a variety of disease indications. Furthermore, once an antigen is incorporated within SynerVax adjuvant it is protected from degradation until it is delivered, in a highly-efficient manner, to the cells of the immune system that are responsible for initiating protective immune responses."
                    
Synergy Vaccines, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of novel vaccines using SynerVax adjuvant technology in order to provide more effective and less costly vaccines. Additional information about Synergy Vaccines is available at http://www.synergyvaccines.com.