TKTX Transkaryotic Therapies (MM)

Tamara L. Joseph Named General Counsel of TKT CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TKTX) today announced that Tamara L. Joseph has joined the company as Vice President, General Counsel. Ms. Joseph has broad legal experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 16 years of experience in the US, France and Belgium. She joins TKT from Biogen Idec where she served as Vice President, International Legal. In her role as General Counsel at TKT, Ms. Joseph will have responsibility for all its legal and government relations activities. "I am confident that Tamara's knowledge, judgment and integrity will be important assets for TKT," said Michael J. Astrue, President and Chief Executive Officer. "In addition, her broad experience within the pharmaceutical industry will be extremely beneficial to us as we continue to bring new products to market over the next several years." While at Biogen Idec, Ms. Joseph had overall responsibility for the international legal and public affairs functions, advising senior management on international legal issues. She was also an Associate at the law offices of Morrison & Foerster in New York, Los Angeles and Brussels, where she handled litigation, intellectual property, and commercial law matters. Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Joseph was an Associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in New York. She received a B.A. from Duke University, a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and LLM degrees from the College of Europe and from the University of Paris. She is admitted to practice law in New York, California, England and Wales. Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on researching, developing and commercializing treatments for rare diseases caused by protein deficiencies. Within this focus, the company markets Replagal(TM), an enzyme replacement therapy for Fabry disease, and is developing treatments for Hunter syndrome and Gaucher disease. In addition to its focus on rare diseases, TKT intends to commercialize Dynepo(TM), its Gene- Activated(R) erythropoietin product for anemia related to kidney disease, in the European Union. TKT was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with additional operations in Europe, Canada and South America. Additional information about TKT is available on the company's website at http://www.tktx.com/. This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding TKT's management structure, as well as statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "estimates," "intends," "should," "could," "will," "may," and similar expressions. There are a number of important factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including, whether TKT will be able to successfully manage its legal and business development functions, and other factors set forth under the caption "Certain Factors Which May Affect Future Results" in the company's Quarterly Report on Form 10- Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2004, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are incorporated herein by reference. While the company may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, even if its expectations change. Gene-Activated(R) is a registered trademark and Replagal(TM) is a trademark of Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. Dynepo(TM) is a trademark of Sanofi-Aventis SA. For More Information Contact: Justine E. Koenigsberg Senior Director, Corporate Communications (617) 349-0271 Daniella M. Lutz Corporate Communications Manager (617) 349-0205 http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990913/TKTLOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. CONTACT: Justine E. Koenigsberg, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, +1-617-349-0271, or Daniella M. Lutz, Corporate Communications Manager, +1-617-349-0205 both of Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. Web site: http://www.tktx.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/120657.html

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