Biotech Turnaround Guru, William Pursley, Named Vice-Chairman of Xechem International

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2003--Xechem International, Inc. (OTCBB:XKEM - News) today announced that it has appointed William H. Pursley to its Board of Directors, naming him Vice-Chairman. Pursley, while serving in executive positions at Genentech, Genzyme, Bio-Technology General and Transkaryotic Therapies, played key roles in the commercialization of over $1 billion in orphan drugs.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (PRWEB) November 19, 2003 --Xechem International, Inc. (OTCBB:XKEM - News) today announced that it has appointed William H. Pursley to its Board of Directors, naming him Vice-Chairman. Pursley, while serving in executive positions at Genentech, Genzyme, Bio-Technology General and Transkaryotic Therapies, played key roles in the commercialization of over $1 billion in orphan drugs. Most recently, as CEO of Osiris Therapeutics, he led a turnaround that revamped management and operations and significantly increased the company's value through corporate partnerships with Boston Scientific, amongst others. The long-time industry executive started his career 24 years ago with Merck.

After leaving Genentech, where he was a member of the original team that launched human growth hormone (hGH) and Activase (TPA), Pursley headed up Sales and Marketing for Genzyme. He orchestrated the launch of Ceredase®, a therapeutic treatment for Gaucher disease, which today enjoys approximately $700 million in annual sales and still accounts for the majority of Genzyme's profits. At Bio-Technology General (BTG), he resurrected a 34-year-old anabolic steroid, Oxandrin®, to become the prescription market leader in AIDS wasting. Today, Oxandrin® remains as BTG's major profit producer. Following his stint at BTG, Pursley set up Transkaryotic Therapies' (TKT) primary source of income by creating a majority owned subsidiary in Europe to launch Replagal(TM), a treatment for Fabry disease.

"Bill Pursley is a heavyweight in the biotechnology industry. His talent for strategic thinking and his implementation skills for creating value and launching products has led to success after success. We are fortunate that we have been able to attract someone with his remarkable turnaround skills to the Xechem team," said Dr. Ramesh C. Pandey, Chairman and CEO of Xechem International.

Pursley commented, "Xechem's latest proprietary product, HEMOXIN(TM), its designated Orphan Drug status by FDA for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), represents a potentially outstanding upside opportunity for the Company and the 80,000 SCD patients in the U.S. alone. This is a very large orphan market involving a critical disease without a definitive therapy. As an active board member and Vice-Chairman, my primary role will be to create a laser focus for Xechem to get HEMOXIN(TM) to the U.S. market."

Xechem International, Inc. is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company focusing on proprietary products for orphan diseases.

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are intended to be covered by safe harbors created hereby. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, including the ability of the Companies to successfully develop and commercialize their technologies, and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Companies to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements of the Companies expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
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     Xechem International, Inc., New Brunswick