Portola Pharmaceuticals Appoints Jean-Jacques Bienaime to Board of Directors

Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the appointment of Jean-Jacques Bienaime to the company's board of directors. Mr. Bienaime currently serves as chief executive officer of BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. He is chairman of the board of NeurogesX, Inc., a member of the board of BIO and a member of the advisory board of Bellevue Asset Management's BioVentures II fund.

"Jean-Jacques Bienaime is a biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience," said William Lis, chief executive officer of Portola. "His experience as a CEO managing and building fully integrated biotechnology companies and his expertise commercializing anti-thrombotic products will be invaluable to Portola as we advance our two lead partnered product candidates, elinogrel and betrixaban, and our pipeline of proprietary products in cardiovascular disease and inflammation through clinical development and into commercialization."

Mr. Bienaime joined BioMarin, which develops and commercializes innovative biopharmaceuticals for serious diseases and medical conditions, in May 2005 as chief executive officer and member of the board of directors. Prior to joining BioMarin, he served as chairman, chief executive officer and president of Genencor, a biotechnology company focused on industrial bioproducts and targeted cancer biotherapeutics. Before that, he served as chairman, chief executive officer and president of Sangstat Medical Corporation, an immunology-focused biotechnology company that he guided to profitability prior to its acquisition by Genzyme Corporation. Earlier in his career, Mr. Bienaime held several senior management positions at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals (now sanofi-aventis) culminating in the position of senior vice president of worldwide marketing and business development responsible for, among other things, the launch of Lovenox(R) (for the prevention of pulmonary embolism and treatment of unstable angina) in the United States. He also worked at Genentech, Inc. where he was involved in the launch of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) for the treatment of heart attacks.