Telik, Inc.'s TRAP Drug Discovery Technology Surpasses 3 Million Molecular Fingerprint Milestone

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Telik, Inc. announced today that its library of diverse profiled compounds now exceeds 3.3 million. The expanded library significantly enhances Telik's patented drug discovery technology, Target Related Affinity Profiling (TRAP(R)). TRAP technology exploits the principle that drugs act by adhering to and interacting with key cellular proteins. Telik has developed a novel computational approach to determine a molecular fingerprint for each compound in its library. TRAP technology uses these molecular fingerprints to rapidly search the library for promising lead molecules and to optimize these structures into new drug candidates. TRAP also allows the use of a wide range of biologically relevant assays. Several applications of the technology were recently described at the 99th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"This milestone is the latest achievement as we advance Telik's TRAP technology," said Robert Lum, Ph.D., Telik's Vice President of Technology and Preclinical Development. "This library of computational molecular fingerprints, combined with our proprietary data mining algorithms, will help drive the continued growth of Telik's pipeline of preclinical candidates."

TRAP technology has been the focus of several industry partnerships and collaborations with leading academic cancer centers. Telik continues to seek additional TRAP-based partnerships with corporations and academic investigators for the discovery and development of novel therapeutics.

About Telik

Telik, Inc. of Palo Alto, CA, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel small molecule drugs to treat serious diseases. The company's most advanced investigational drug candidates in clinical development are TELINTRA(R), a modified glutathione analog for the treatment of cytopenias due to myelodysplastic syndrome or chemotherapy, and TELCYTA(R), a tumor-activated prodrug for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Telik's product candidates were discovered using its proprietary drug discovery technology, TRAP, which enables the rapid and efficient discovery of small molecule drug candidates. Additional information is available at http://www.telik.com.

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, including statements regarding the potential capabilities of Telik's TRAP technology, the potential growth of Telik's preclinical drug candidates, the potential development of existing and new partnerships and collaborations involving TRAP, and the potential value of TRAP in the development of drugs and therapies in connection with these partnerships. These forward-looking statements are based upon Telik's current expectations. There are important factors that could cause Telik's results to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements. Detailed information regarding factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by statements in this press release may be found in Telik's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the factors described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008. Telik does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

TELIK, the Telik logo, TELINTRA, TELCYTA, and TRAP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Telik, Inc.

CONTACT: Patricia P. Frias, Corporate Communications of Telik, Inc.,
+1-650-845-7927, pfrias@telik.com

Web site: http://www.telik.com/

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