Vernalis PLC Release: Appointment of Nigel Sheail to Non-Executive Director

3 August 2011 -- For further information about Vernalis, please visit www.vernalis.com Vernalis plc announces that Nigel Sheail has today been appointed to the Board as a Non- Executive Director.

Nigel is the Head of Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions and Global Head of Pharma Licensing at Hoffmann-La Roche. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst and Young, and a few years with Glaxo, Nigel has spent much of his career with Hoffman-La Roche where he has held a variety of positions in the US, China and Switzerland in corporate finance, licensing and strategic alliances.

Peter Fellner, Chairman of Vernalis plc, commented:

"I am delighted to welcome Nigel to the Vernalis Board. His depth of experience in the global pharmaceutical industry will be very valuable for the Board, and we look forward to his contribution, as we seek to build future value for Vernalis shareholders.”

Enquiries:

Vernalis Contacts

Ian Garland, Chief Executive Officer

+44 (0) 118 989 9360

David Mackney, Chief Financial Officer

Brunswick Group

Jon Coles

+44 (0) 20 7404 5959

Kristin Shine

Taylor Rafferty

Rob Newman

+44 (0) 20 7614 2900

Faisal Kanth

About Vernalis

Vernalis is a revenue generating development stage pharmaceutical company with significant expertise in taking promising product candidates along a commercially-focused path to market. The Group has one marketed product, frovatriptan for the acute treatment of migraine, and eight candidates in development, seven of which are designated priority programmes. Four of these priority development programmes are currently unpartnered and three are partnered. Pipeline programmes are derived from both our own research activities where we have significant expertise in fragment and structure based drug discovery, as well as from collaborations. Our technologies, capabilities and products are endorsed by collaborations with Endo, GSK, Lundbeck, Menarini, Novartis and Servier.

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