BETAGENON AND ASTRAZENECA SIGN COLLABORATION AGREEMENT ON THERAPIES FOR
TYPE 2 DIABETES

Stockholm, Sweden, October 24, 2003 - Betagenon AB a Swedish
biotechnology company focused on the discovery and early stage
development of drug therapies for treatment of type 2 diabetes announced
today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with
AstraZeneca.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common metabolic disease with a high
incidence in Western countries. Approximately 150 million people are
currently affected by the disease and it is regarded to be epidemic in
USA. Today's most widely used diabetes drugs were developed several
decades ago, with little understanding of the underlying disease
mechanism. Consequently, type 2 diabetes is a chronic, incurable disease
and sufferers have a high risk of developing life-threatening
cardiovascular complications as the disease progresses. The acute
clinical need and the large expanding market for new drugs represent an
extraordinary market opportunity

It is now established that type 2 is manifested when the insulin
producing beta cells fail to meet an increasing demand of insulin due to
insulin resistance and/or obesity. Betagenon is a young research
intensive company with an in-depth and unique knowledge about novel
mechanisms of beta cell defects that cause type 2 diabetes.

The long-term goal of the collaboration is to enable AstraZeneca to
develop new drugs that restore ability of the beta cells to meet the
increased demand of insulin in type 2 diabetics. Betagenon has access to
unique in vivo models in which the beta cells fail to produce and/or
secrete enough insulin in a regulate manner, and which develop diabetes
that closely mimics type 2 diabetes in man. These models will be used in
the collaboration to develop a superior drug discovery platform. The
terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Our strategy has been to find the ideal pharmaceutical partner to
efficiently develop these assets into novel drugs that can make a real
difference for this very large and expanding group of patients. We are
therefore extremely pleased to have reached a collaboration agreement
with AstraZeneca, a leader in the pharmaceutical industry. We believe
this collaboration demonstrates the value of the Betagenon frontier
knowledge, and with this agreement we have passed an important milestone
in our strategy", says Olof Karlsson, President of Betagenon.

"Access to...