SAN DIEGO, CALIF./Dec. 7/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ceregene, Inc. today announced that it has expanded its clinical team with the appointment of Matthias Kurth, M.D., Ph.D. as Vice President for Medical Affairs and Daniel Lee, M.S. as Director of Clinical Operations.

Dr. Kurth received his M.D. and Ph.D. at Baylor College of Medicine and trained in neurology at Stanford University and at the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California. Dr. Kurth brings over 15 years of neurology and clinical trials experience to Ceregene. He was most recently involved with neurology clinical trials at Allergan.

"We are pleased to have Matt join the team. His proven leadership, knowledge, and clinical expertise are vital to Ceregene's efforts to advance its clinical programs for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and ALS," stated Jeffrey M. Ostrove, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Ceregene.

"I am truly excited about joining Ceregene. The gene therapy technologies the company is developing to deliver growth factors to treat these neurodegenerative disorders are very promising and I look forward to helping further their advancement in the clinic," stated Dr. Kurth.

In addition to Dr. Kurth, Daniel Lee, M.S. has joined Ceregene as Director of Clinical Operations. Mr. Lee has nearly 20 years of experience with extensive responsibilities in all phases of clinical trials for neurological disorders and spent the last 11 years at Amgen, as senior clinical research manager, where he coordinated Parkinson's disease and ALS clinical programs.

Ceregene, Inc. is a San Diego-based biotechnology company focused on the development of gene therapies for neurodegenerative disorders. Ceregene is currently in the clinic with CERE-110, an AAV vector expressing nerve growth factor that is being tested as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. CERE-120 and CERE-130 are both in late preclinical development for Parkinson's disease and ALS, respectively. Ceregene was launched in January 2001 and is a minority-owned subsidiary of Cell Genesys, Inc. (NASDAQ:CEGE), which is headquartered in South San Francisco, CA. Ceregene closed a $32 million Series B financing in August 2004 that was co-led by Alta Partners and MPM Capital. For more information, visit the Ceregene website.

Statements made herein about Ceregene and Cell Genesys, other than statements of historical fact, including statements about clinical programs are forward-looking statements and are subject to a number of uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made including risks associated with the success of research and development programs, clinical trials, the regulatory approval process for clinical trials, competitive technologies and products, patents, continuation of option agreements and the need for additional financings. For information about these and other risks that may affect Ceregene and Cell Genesys, please see the Cell Genesys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003 dated March 4, 2004 as well as Cell Genesys' reports on Form 10-Q and 8-K and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

1/21/2005