Hesperion announces the opening of its North American office in Redmond, WA, USA

Allschwil, Switzerland and Redmond, WA, USA, April 4th, 2005. -- Hesperion Ltd of Allschwil Switzerland, today announced the opening of the office of Hesperion Inc., its fully-owned subsidiary based in Redmond, near Seattle, Washington, USA. Hesperion's new North American Headquarters will manage all future USA and Canadian operations for Hesperion.

"The opening of Hesperion Inc. is a logical step for Hesperion to better meet the demands of its clients in North America" commented Vincent Charlon, CEO of Hesperion, adding "we have managed a large number of sites and projects in North America since 1999 and have an increasing number of North American clients. We wish now to establish our own operations in North America and to provide the same level of services and partnership as in Europe."

The new office of Hesperion Inc. is conveniently located in Redmond, WA, 30 minutes from Seattle Tacoma airport. Hesperion Inc. employs both office-based staff and regionally-based CRAs to monitor clinical trials across the United States and Canada. All Hesperion North American programs will be managed out of the Redmond office with experienced project managers and access to Hesperion's global medical, regulatory, data management and statistical services. The new office in Redmond will also facilitate efficient communication and collaboration with North American clients, which are essential elements of Hesperion's clinical development partnership philosophy.

As with all Hesperion regional offices, Hesperion Inc. is networked to Hesperion's information technology and its staff utilizes Hesperion's global systems for project management, reporting and data management. This seamless integration enables Hesperion Inc. to offer immediately the complete range of clinical development partnership services, including clinical operations, data management, regulatory, statistical and medical services to North American clients.

With a rapidly increasing number of clients in both Europe and North America, Hesperion is becoming a leader in providing clinical development expertise and operational services in partnership with small and mid-size biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

About Hesperion
Hesperion is a high quality CRO founded in 1996, focusing on establishing clinical development partnerships with small and mid-size biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Hesperion employs over 150 clinical research professionals worldwide with expertise in medical and regulatory affairs, clinical operations, data management and statistics. Hesperion currently has six international offices located in Switzerland (headquarters), Israel, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, France and USA. Hesperion offers full and modular services to its clients and partners from clinical planning to clinical conduct and regulatory submissions. Hesperion has conducted over 150 projects with more than 40 clients covering in excess of 35 countries with 20,000 subjects and has been successfully audited by EMEA and FDA for its work on the pivotal studies of Tracleer, the breakthrough orphan treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension developed by Actelion Ltd. Hesperion is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cerep S.A.