Industry Veterans Will Introduce Breast Cancer Risk Stratifier to Help Physicians Determine Monitoring and Treatment Plans for Women with Intermediate Levels of Risk

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–Perlegen Sciences, which develops genetic tests that correlate genetic variation to predisposition to disease and drug response, announced today that it has added key positions to its commercial team in preparation for the launch of its lead product, MammaPLUS™, a breast cancer risk stratifier, in the second half of 2009. The company’s new director of product marketing, Susan Billat, and new director of managed care, Fran Strauss, will help lead Perlegen’s sales/marketing team to reach groups that serve women who may benefit from more specific information on their risk for sporadic, non-hereditary breast cancer, including physicians, payers and advocacy organizations.

“Each year, more than one million women have negative or benign breast biopsies, after which they have up to a four times greater risk of developing breast cancer, and, ultimately, one in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer,” said Bryan Walser, M.D., CEO of Perlegen. “Perlegen’s commercial group understands the needs of the breast cancer and cancer prevention community and will draw upon its deep experience with women’s health, oncology, diagnostics and reimbursement to introduce the benefits of MammaPLUS to that community.”

MammaPLUS is a novel genetic test panel containing validated and replicated common genetic variations (SNPs) associated with an increased risk for sporadic breast cancer. Finding an absence or presence of these variations in a blood sample, plus factoring in a standard clinical assessment based on family and personal history, gives physicians a clearer picture of an individual woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. This is especially useful for women at intermediate risk, including those who have undergone breast biopsies, as MammaPLUS provides information that can help physicians recommend courses of action, such as more vigilant, targeted surveillance or preventive therapy, on a patient-by-patient basis.

In advance of the MammaPLUS launch, Perlegen is pursuing accreditation of an in-house CLIA-certified laboratory. The company has also established a professional medical affairs function, led by Matthew Mealiffe, M.D., to serve as a resource to physicians and other healthcare professionals.

“We are delighted to have both Susan and Fran join our strong existing commercial team. They are accomplished, seasoned professionals in women’s health and oncology, and they both will play important roles in helping to deliver a clinically useful diagnostic tool that can better define and predict sporadic breast cancer risk to allow for enhanced patient management,” said Mark Ostrowski, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Perlegen.

Ms. Billat joins Perlegen from Monogram Biosciences, where she was senior product manager for oncology and virology and launched the HERmark™ Breast Cancer Assay. She also launched Increlex® as senior product manager for Tercica, and she spent five years in sales with Aventis (now Sanofi-Aventis). Ms. Strauss’s experience includes several years as director of women’s health and health plans for Adeza Biomedical, preceded by several years at Digene Corporation (now part of Qiagen), where as business director for managed care/women’s health she introduced HPV testing for cervical cancer to U.S. private and public payers. Ms. Strauss also spent nearly a decade with Aetna as manager of physician recruitment and network development.

About Perlegen

Perlegen’s mission is to discover and commercialize genetic variations that can make a difference to patients and physicians. The company’s expertise is in understanding human genetic variation within and across diverse patient populations and in conducting studies aimed at identifying those variations that are predictive of drug response, including both toxicity and efficacy. For more information about the company and its technologies, visit Perlegen’s website at www.perlegen.com.

MammaPLUS is a trademark of Perlegen Sciences, Inc. HERmark is a trademark of Monogram BioSciences, Inc. Increlex is a registered trademark of Tercica.