Ambrx, Inc., today announced the appointment of August M. Watanabe, M.D. to its Board of Directors. Dr. Watanabe was formerly a senior executive at Eli Lilly & Company, where he occupied the positions of Executive Vice President of Science and Technology, President of Lilly Research Laboratories and a member of the Board of Directors. During his tenure the company became recognized as having one the strongest new drug pipelines in the industry, including Forteo® and Xigris® and the recently launched drugs Alimta®, Cialis®, Cymbalta® and Straterra®.

From 1971 to 1990, Dr. Watanabe was a full time faculty member at Indiana University School of Medicine. He was professor and chairman of the department of medicine at the medical school from 1983 to 1990. Dr. Watanabe was also formerly a director of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, and a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He served for six years as chairman of the Science and Technology Section of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association of America (PhRMA). Dr. Watanabe is a partner in Twilight Venture Partners LLC and serves as Volunteer Chairman of BioCrossroads, Indiana's leading public-private life science network. He also serves as a director of Guidant Corporation, the Indiana University Foundation and the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

"Dr. Watanabe has an impressive track record of developing breakthrough medicines across multiple therapeutic areas using both large molecule and small molecule approaches," commented Richard DiMarchi, Ambrx's Chairman of the Board. "His achievements in both academic and commercial settings will be tremendously valuable to Ambrx as we expand the breadth and depth of our technology platform."

Ambrx recently announced the completion of a $23.4 million preferred stock financing. Investors in Ambrx include Maverick Capital, Tavistock Life Sciences, 5AM Ventures, Versant Ventures, Aravis Ventures, CMEA Ventures, Alexandria Real Estate Equities and Twilight Venture Partners.

About Ambrx
Ambrx is a biopharmaceutical company committed to transforming the science and performance of protein-based medicines. Building on a fundamental advance in protein biosynthesis, Ambrx can genetically engineer proteins with novel amino acid building blocks beyond the common twenty. This approach represents a new paradigm in protein engineering and permits the pharmaceutical optimization of proteins in a manner analogous to that used for decades to improve the properties of traditional small molecule-based drugs and peptides. The company's most advanced product candidate, a human growth hormone with superior performance, is currently in preclinical development with an IND filing anticipated in 2006. In addition, Ambrx is optimizing several other protein therapeutics representing large markets and significant unmet medical need. For more information on Ambrx's technologies, team and collaborative opportunities, please visit www.ambrx.com.