ID Biomedical Announces Closing Of Acquisition By GlaxoSmithKline

VANCOUVER, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - ID Biomedical Corporation ("ID Biomedical") announced that the acquisition of ID Biomedical by GlaxoSmithKline plc and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. ("GSK") has now closed and ID Biomedical is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of GSK.

Letters of transmittal have been mailed to all registered securityholders of ID Biomedical. Securityholders will receive payment for their securities as soon as possible after all information and documents required by the letters of transmittal are returned to Computershare Investor Services Inc., who has been retained to act as depositary for the transaction. As letters of transmittal can only be completed by a registered holder of securities, securityholders who hold their securities through brokers or other financial intermediaries should contact their broker or intermediary to ensure all required information is provided promptly in order to permit payment for their securities on a timely basis.

ID Biomedical expects that its securities will be de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq National Market in the next several days.

About ID Biomedical

ID Biomedical is an integrated biotechnology company dedicated to the development of innovative vaccine products. It operates in research, development, manufacturing, sales and marketing from its facilities in Canada and in the United States. ID Biomedical is dedicated to becoming a premier vaccine company with significant marketed products worldwide and an extensive pipeline in both clinical and preclinical development.

ID Biomedical has a leading position in the Canadian influenza market. It received a ten year mandate from the Government of Canada in 2001 to assure a state of readiness in the case of an influenza pandemic and provide influenza vaccine for all Canadians in such an event. It also currently supplies approximately 75% of the Canadian government's influenza vaccine purchases.

For further information, please contact: Investor Relations / Media Dean Linden Michele Roy (604) 431-9314 (450) 978-6313 dlinden@idbiomedical.commroy@idbiomedical.com

CONTACT: Investor Relations, Media, Dean Linden, (604) 431-9314,dlinden@idbiomedical.com; Michele Roy, (450) 978-6313,mroy@idbiomedical.com; To request a free copy of this organization's annualreport, please go to http://www.newswire.ca and click on Tools forInvestors.