Gilde Healthcare Partners joins existing shareholders, board directors and management in the Company’s Series C Investment Round

Copenhagen, 18^th December 2007 – Santaris Pharma, the Danish biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has completed a new €20.4 million (DKK 152 million, US$ 30 million) private investment round. Gilde Healthcare Partners, a new investor in the Company, contributed € 7.5 million (DKK 56 million, US$ 11million) of the financing, with the remaining €12.9 million (DKK 96 million, US$ 19 million) provided by a strong international syndicate of existing investors, including BankInvest, Novo, LD, Forbion Capital Partners, Global Life Science Venture, Sunstone Capital, Seventure, Omega, Innovation Capital and members of the Company’s board and management.

In connection with the financing Edwin de Graaf from Gilde Healthcare Partners will join the Board of Directors of Santaris Pharma.

The proceeds of the financing will be used primarily to fund continued development of Santaris Pharma’s pipeline of innovative RNA antagonist drug candidates based on its breakthrough LNA chemistry.  In 2008 the Company expects to advance its SPC2996 compound, an RNA Antagonist of Bcl-2, into Phase II clinical trials in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia and B-cell Lymphoma and to initiate phase I volunteer studies of two new RNA antagonists for the treatment of metabolic disorders.

Following the completion of the Series C Financing Round the Company’s cash reserve is more than € 40 million.

In announcing the Series C Financing, Keith McCullagh, Santaris Pharma’s CEO, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Gilde Healthcare Partners as a new shareholder in Santaris Pharma. This Series C financing provides the Company with an additional €20m of cash reserves, sufficient to fund operations through to the end of 2009 without additional financing or income from new corporate collaborations.  I am also pleased to say that our existing investors, together with all members of the management team and several members of our Board, have also invested in this round.”   

Edwin de Graaf, General Partner of Gilde Healthcare Partners, said:

“Gilde Healthcare Partners invests in biopharmaceutical companies with strong technology platforms and experienced management. In our view, Santaris Pharma is well positioned to become a leader in the RNA inhibition field. We are impressed by how quickly they have built a highly promising pipeline of products, which will be validated in the clinic using the proceeds of this financing round.”

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Santaris Pharma Forward-Looking Statements

This written announcement contains  forward-looking statements, identified by the use of words such as "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "should", "potential," "anticipates," "plans" or "intends" and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from the future results, events or developments indicated in this announcement. Such factors include, but are not limited to the timing, success and cost of clinical studies; the ability to obtain regulatory approval of products, market acceptance of and future demand for Santaris products and the impact of competitive products and pricing.  These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that the future results covered by the forward-looking statements will be achieved. All information in this press release is as of the date of this press release and Santaris does not intend to update this information.

For further information, please contact:

Randi Krogsgaard, Director, Corporate Communications, Santaris Pharma

Direct phone +45 4517 9879

E-mail: rmk@santaris.com

Henrik Stage, VP Finance and Administration & CFO, Santaris Pharma

Tel: +45 4517 9888

E-mail: hs@santaris.com

For UK media relations, please contact:

College Hill Life Sciences

Adam Michael, adam.michael@collegehill.com

Direct line: +44 (0)20 7866 7851

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

About Santaris Pharma

Santaris Pharma is a Danish based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The company was formed in 2003 and currently employs more than 85 people. Santaris Pharma has the exclusive rights to LNA technology, a 3rd generation antisense chemistry used to develop new classes of RNA medicines, called RNA Antagonists and microRNA antagonists. Santaris Pharmas microRNA Antagonists are targeted against tissue specific microRNAs associated with cancer and metabolic disorders. Santaris Pharma completed a Euro 40m second round of equity financing in May 2006 and a Euro 20m third round of equity financing in December 2007. Santaris Pharma has a global partnership with Enzon Pharmaceuticals of New Jersey to co-develop and commercialise a series of Santaris RNA Antagonists for improving the treatment of cancer.

For further company information see www.santaris.com

About Gilde Healthcare Partners

Gilde Healthcare Partners (www.gildehealthcare.nl) founded in 2000 is headquartered in Utrecht, the Netherlands with representatives in London and Madrid. Gilde Healthcare Partners has over EUR 275 million under management and is actively looking to lead new investments in therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and enabling technologies. Gilde is a successful builder of healthcare businesses across Europe. By investing in companies with clear achievable business models, Gilde has used its financial resources and network to create significant value for both its investors and the entrepreneurs it backs.  

Companies that Gilde Healthcare Partners has pro-actively supported span all aspects of healthcare and include Ablynx (Belgium), Agendia (Netherlands), AMT (Netherlands), Ascendis (Denmark), Chroma Therapeutics (UK), Conatus (US), Flowcardia (US), Glycart (Switzerland), Innate Pharma (France) and Symphogen (Denmark). For a full list of Gilde’s portfolio companies please visit the website.

About Santaris’s Locked Nucleic Acid technology

LNA is an analogue of RNA (ribonucleic acid). The conformation of the ribose sugar in LNA is ‘locked’ in the RNA shape by virtue of its rigid bicyclic structure. The result is that when incorporated into oligonucleotides, LNA conveys dramatically enhanced binding affinity to complementary RNA sequences. Each monomer unit of LNA incorporated into a DNA oligonucleotide increases binding affinity by approximately ten-fold. Drug molecules with multiple LNA substitutions therefore have truly outstanding potencies. The greater potency of LNA in binding complementary RNA sequences means that LNA oligonucleotide drugs can be made significantly shorter than previous antisense or siRNA drugs. These shorter, smaller size drugs are taken up rapidly by cells and tissues, thereby overcoming many of the delivery problems of RNAi to date. In addition to greater potency than other oligonucleotide chemistries, LNA drugs are resistant to degradation when given systemically, have long tissue half lives, are taken up readily by many tissues, and have improved therapeutic ratios over first and second generation antisense drugs.