Appointment of Non-Executive Director

3 August 2011

LSE: VER

Vernalis plc - Appointment of Non-Executive Director

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."

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Notes to Editors

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.

For further information about Vernalis, please visit www.vernalis.com

Vernalis Forward-Looking Statement

This news release may contain forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events including the clinical development and regulatory clearance of the Company's products, the Company's ability to find partners for the development and commercialisation of its products, as well as the Company's future capital raising activities. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual events could differ materially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors including the success of the Company's research strategies, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, the uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the ability of the Company to identify and agree beneficial terms with suitable partners for the commercialisation and/or development of its products, as well as the achievement of expected synergies from such transactions, the acceptance of frovatriptan and other products by consumers and medical professionals, the successful integration of completed mergers and acquisitions and achievement of expected synergies from such transactions, and the ability of the Company to identify and consummate suitable strategic and business combination transactions.