LION bioscience Releases LION Target Engine 1.1

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & HEIDELBERG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 2004--LION bioscience--

-- Web Interfaces for both Expert and Novice Users

“This software is used by bioinformaticians and biologists alike in our company and the new functionality enables our scientists to better store data, perform analyses, and most importantly, share the results. This will increase our efficiency in target validation and thus will speed up R&D”

-- Extended Gene Hub and Improved Summary Sheets among User Requested New Functionality

LION bioscience (Nasdaq: LEON) today announced the release of LION Target Engine(TM) 1.1. LION Target Engine(TM) 1.1 enables scientists of different expertise levels in target identification and validation to access all available life science data through a simplified web interface. Scientists can also now annotate and share biological information such as biological pathways through powerful, yet easy to use applications. LION Target Engine(TM) extends the functionality of LION's industry leading integration technology, SRS, by offering a suite of independent, yet fully connectable bioinformatics products.

LION Target Engine(TM) users can retrieve gene and sequence information from multiple databases at the same time through a simple search engine-like interface. The corresponding results are visualized in a simple to read web-based report. This report can be published as an interactive PDF document, which can be shared electronically. The LION Target Engine(TM) Gene Hub, a centralized database connecting experimental, public and proprietary data, has been extended beyond the human genome to include the mouse and rat genomes. Additional model organisms can easily be incorporated into the Gene Hub. LION Target Engine(TM) 1.1 also provides synonyms, ontologies, extensive note-adding capabilities and individual product improvements.

"LION Target Engine(TM) is a modularized suite of bioinformatics products, all of which use LION's Summary Sheet as the central report to visualize data", said Dr. Daniel Keesman, co-CEO and COO at LION. "This report is now even easier to understand, use and share; allowing more users of different expertise levels to access key data and results. By listening to our customer's needs we have again extended the bioinformatics functionality of LION Target Engine(TM) to better support their efforts in target identification and validation."

"As one of the first customers of LION Target Engine(TM), we had the opportunity to evaluate LION Target Engine(TM) 1.1, and we are very pleased with the new features that LION has included", said Georg C. Terstappen, Vice President Discovery Research at Sienabiotech SpA. "This software is used by bioinformaticians and biologists alike in our company and the new functionality enables our scientists to better store data, perform analyses, and most importantly, share the results. This will increase our efficiency in target validation and thus will speed up R&D".

Further information on LION's new LION Target Engine(TM) 1.1 is available at www.lionbioscience.com/lte.

About LION bioscience

LION bioscience (ISIN: DE0005043509, Reuters: LIOG, Bloomberg: LIO, Nasdaq: LEON) provides proven information and knowledge management solutions to significantly improve life science R&D performance and productivity. Since it was founded in 1997, the company has become a recognized leader in the area of life sciences informatics. LION has operations worldwide in Heidelberg, Germany, Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, MA, USA. LION's products are distributed by CTC Laboratory Systems in Japan and DigiGenomics in Taiwan.

LION's (http://www.lionbioscience.com) solutions are used by more than 27,000 researchers at 300 academic and industrial customers globally. LION's offerings include SRS for bioinformatics data access, LION Target Engine(TM) for target identification and validation, LION Lead Engine(TM) for lead identification and optimization, iDEA pkEXPRESS(TM) with analysis and prediction tools for ADME, and LION SolutionCenter(TM) professional services.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release are forward looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and other applicable U.S. and German laws. These forward-looking statements may include projections, assumptions, estimates, targets, and descriptions of future events. Such statements are based on currently available information and on LION's current expectations as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of LION to be materially different from those that may be projected, expected, targeted, expressed or implied by such statements. All roll-out plans and future dates with respect to completion of development and market release of LION products are target dates only based on the company's current planning and may change in the future. Any delays in the current product release schedule will have a materially adverse effect on the company's targets for fiscal year. We refer you to LION's Annual Reports on Form 20-F, as recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 20, 2004 (Form 20-F/A), in which these and other risk factors are discussed. In the event of any material conflicts between the two documents, Form 20-F - resp. Form 20-F/A - should be relied on. LION expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates, revisions or corrections to any forward-looking statements or historical information contained in this announcement, whether as a result of new information, change of assumptions or business model, future developments or otherwise.