February 12, 2003

Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd.

Takeda Presents pharmacological data on its oral CCR5 antagonist
at Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections Conference

OSAKA, JAPAN, February 12, 2002 --- Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. ("Takeda") announced today that it presented pharmacological data on an orally bioavailable small molecule CCR5 antagonist with anti-HIV activity (development code: TAK-220) at the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections held in Boston MA, during February 10 - 14, 2003.

In studies using CCR5-expressing cells, TAK-220 selectively inhibited the binding of ligands of CCR5, and inhibited HIV-1 infection mediated by CCR5. In addition, TAK-220 was shown to have favorable interactions with other antiretrovirals. Animal experimental data show that TAK-220 is orally bioavailable.

So far TAK-220 has not been tested in humans, the efficacy of TAK-220 as anti HIV agent in infected patients will be evaluated in future clinical studies.

[Reference]
*CCR5 antagonist

CCR5 antagonist is defined as an agent that has specific inhibitory action on adhesion and invasion of HIV virus on immune cells (macrophage, activated T-cell). It is expected to be a promising novel candidate as an anti-HIV drug because of different mechanism of action as compared to the existing drugs such as reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors.

*Abstract of presentations at the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections

• 1)Anti-HIV-1 Activity of TAK-220, a Small Molecule CCR5 Antagonist
• 2)TAK-220, a Novel Small Molecule Inhibitor of CCR5 Has Favorable Anti-HIV Interactions with Other Antiretrovirals In Vitro

will become available at the web-site "http://www.retroconference.org/2003" starting at 12:30 p.m. on February 14, 2003 (ET).

For further inquiries, please contact:
Corporate Communications Dept., Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd.
TEL: +81-6-6204-2038 (Osaka), +81-3-3278-2039 (Tokyo)