CombinatoRx Raises $30 Million In Third Venture Capital Round

Proceeds from Financing to Support Clinical Evaluation of Novel Anti-Inflammatory and Oncology Products

BOSTON, Mass. - March 10, 2004 - CombinatoRx, Incorporated, a privately held biopharmaceutical company creating novel combination medicines, today announced that it has raised $30 million in its third venture capital round. The financing includes investments from Boston Millennia Partners, Easton Hunt Capital Partners, Yasuda Enterprise Development and all existing institutional investors including Global Life Science Ventures, Canaan Partners, Flagship Ventures, and TL Ventures. Representing the lead investor, Pat Fortune, Ph.D., a Partner at Boston Millennia, joins the CombinatoRx Board of Directors

"The funds from this financing will be used to progress multiple programs from the CombinatoRx pipeline through the clinic," said Alexis Borisy, President and CEO of CombinatoRx. "We are also excited to welcome Pat Fortune to our Board of Directors. His extensive experience in the healthcare industry and his entrepreneurial expertise will be particularly valuable in advancing the CombinatoRx approach."

During the last year, CombinatoRx initiated clinical evaluation of three novel programs in oncology and inflammatory diseases. The Company also received its first product patent, published its first peer-reviewed publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and strengthened the management team with the appointment of Chief Medical Officer, Jan Lessem, M.D., Ph.D., and Chief Financial Officer, Robert Forrester.

"The productivity of the CombinatoRx platform is indeed impressive," commented Fortune. "Utilizing a pragmatic approach to systems biology, the team is developing multiple innovative drugs that represent large medical and commercial opportunities. The focus on drugs that simultaneously target multiple points on disease pathways holds a great deal of promise for effective therapeutics in a broad range of disease states."

About CombinatoRx

CombinatoRx, a privately held pharmaceutical company, is creating new combination medicines that attack disease on multiple fronts. The company has an impressive clinical and preclinical pipeline of novel agents, including treatments in development for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, and has ongoing research in respiratory, metabolic, and infectious diseases. CombinatoRx invented the industryÕs first combination drug discovery platform to generate new medicines, based upon new insights into disease networks, in a broad range of therapeutic areas. Founded in 2000 by leading scientists from Harvard and MIT, the company has raised $90M in venture capital and is executing on its business strategy to rapidly build and commercialize a portfolio of breakthrough products. For further information please visit the CombinatoRx web-site at (www.combinatorx.com).

This press release contains statements that are not strictly historical and are "forward looking" statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This information includes, statements regarding the CompanyÕs ability to accelerate the identification of potential new therapies, to reduce the risk of failure prevalent in the drug discovery and development process and the ability to identify breakthrough products more efficiently than traditional methods.

Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, and can be identified by, among other things, the use of forward looking language, such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should" "seeks," "plans," "schedule to," "anticipates" or "intends" or the negative of those terms, or other variations of those terms of comparable language, or by discussions of strategy or intentions. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in the forward looking statement including, but not limited to, the ability of the Company to: (i) successfully develop products, (ii) obtain the necessary governmental approvals, (iii) effectively commercialize any products developed before its competitors, (iv) obtain and enforce intellectual property rights and (v) the effect of economic conditions and additional financing requirements. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation or responsibility to update or revise the statements.

Contact:

Robert Forrester
Chief Financial Officer
Tel: (617) 425-7028
rforrester@combinatorx.com