Flagship Ventures names former president of Wyeth Research, L. Patrick Gage, Venture Partner

Pharmaceutical executive to focus on biopharmaceutical innovators

Cambridge, Mass. - October 23, 2003 - Flagship Ventures announced today that L. Patrick Gage has joined the firm as Venture Partner. A highly respected pharmaceutical executive, Pat will focus on identifying groundbreaking drug discovery and drug development ventures and helping management teams build these ventures into successful biopharmaceutical leaders. The addition of Pat brings Flagship Ventures' life science team to 12 members, one of the strongest and most active in the past three years with 16 new portfolio investments.

For the past 30 years Pat has held various positions of leadership and management in the pharmaceutical and biotech arenas. During his 18 years at Hoffmann-La Roche, he moved from the senior staff of the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology to VP, Exploratory Research in pharmaceutical research. In 1989 Pat joined Genetics Institute, Inc., where he first served as R&D head and then as Chief Operating Officer. He went on to become President in 1997 after American Home Products Corporation completed acquisition of the company. In 1998, Pat was named President of Wyeth Research for the combined companies, and in 2000 was also named SVP, Science and Technology, for Wyeth. In this capacity he served as the Chief Scientific Officer for Wyeth corporate and as advisor to the company's Chairman and CEO as well as its Board of Directors.

"I'm excited to be joining Flagship Ventures as part of the Life Science Team," said Pat. "I've worked with them before, and believe they have unique leadership strategies in the early stage venture business. I think we have a good opportunity to create and develop a strong portfolio of companies with high potential in the life sciences business sector."

Noubar Afeyan, Senior Managing Director and CEO of Flagship Ventures said, "As a leader in the pharmaceutical industry for over two decades, Pat brings to the Flagship Ventures team deep experience, a unique perspective and a very broad network. He also has extensive experience in pharma-biotech partnerships and in developing and launching breakthrough drugs, the two most reliable ways to create shareholder value in the world of life science ventures."

Pat is currently Chairman of the Board of a Flagship portfolio company, Compound Therapeutics, and is also a Director of Neose Technologies, Inc., and Protein Design Labs, Inc. He is a scientific advisor to PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences, Functional Genetics, Inc., and Warburg Pincus, and serves on the boards of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association and the Biotechnology Institute. Pat earned a bachelors degree in physics in 1964 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Chicago in 1969.

About Flagship Ventures

Founded in 1999, Flagship Ventures (www.flagshipventures.com) is an entrepreneurship and venture capital firm comprised of a family of funds: OneLiberty Funds, AGTC Funds and NewcoGen Group. We currently invest from $400 million in funds raised in 2000, and manage a total pool of committed capital approaching $600 million. The Flagship Ventures team consists of 29 professionals focused on creating, financing, and building companies in the life science, information technology, and communications sectors.