For Immediate Release

TAKEDA TO ACQUIRE SYRRX

FEBRUARY 7, 2005

SAN DIEGO, CA, -- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd announced today that Takeda and Syrrx Inc. agreed to merge Syrrx, Inc. into the Takeda Group. The merger is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott- Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and is subject to the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Upon successful completion of the transaction, Syrrx will become a subsidiary of Takeda America Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda.

Founded in February 1999, San Diego based Syrrx achieves a competitive advantage in drug discovery by leveraging its leading high-throughput X-ray crystallography capabilities to determine the three dimensional structures of drug targets. Syrrx uses these structures to efficiently design best-in-class drug candidates. Syrrx directs its efforts toward therapeutics to treat metabolic diseases, cancer, and inflammation, and has multiple R&D pipeline products including several compounds directed to type 2 diabetes already in clinical development

This merger will integrate Syrrx's technologies and R&D pipeline into Takeda and establish a discovery research presence for Takeda in the US. This relationship is expected to help Takeda further enhance its R&D pipeline and to create more innovative drugs as early as possible through efficient discovery processes including identification of target molecules, search for hit compounds and medicinal chemistry research. Syrrx will become part of Takeda's global discovery research network together with Takeda's existing discovery centers in Osaka and Tsukuba, Japan.

“We are pleased to become part of the Takeda group, which has high standards for both R&D and marketing as proven by the creation and successful market penetration of its four international strategic products,” said Samuel D. Colella, chairman of the board of Syrrx and managing director of Versant Ventures. “We believe that compounds created by Syrrx will be successfully developed by Takeda under its global development organization, while our state-of-the-art technologies will contribute to enhancement of Takeda's R&D pipeline,” said Stephen W. Kaldor, who will continue as president and chief scientific officer of Syrrx.

“We are confident that the merger with Syrrx will bring benefits to both organizations, and will enhance our ability to create novel drugs,” said Mr. Yasuchika Hasegawa, president and chief operating officer of Takeda. “As a company aiming to become an R&D oriented, world-class pharmaceutical company, it is critical to expand our global research network for the continued creation of new products as a source of growth. We are pleased with this merger agreement as an important step toward the realization of our management mission of 'striving toward better health for individuals and progress in medicine by developing superior pharmaceutical products.”

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