CV Therapeutics Announces $185 Million Transaction with TPG-Axon Capital for Half of Royalty for Lexiscan(TM) (regadenoson)...( PALO ALTO Calif. April 15 /- CV T...)

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CV Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CVTX) announced today that TPG-Axon Capital has agreed to pay CV Therapeutics up to $185 million in exchange for rights to 50 percent of CV Therapeutics' royalty on North American sales of Lexiscan(TM) (regadenoson) injection. CV Therapeutics received $175 million on closing of the transaction and could receive a potential future milestone payment of $10 million.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Lexiscan(TM) (regadenoson) injection, an A2A adenosine receptor agonist, for use as a pharmacologic stress agent in radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in patients unable to undergo adequate exercise stress, on April 10, 2008.

CV Therapeutics retains rights to the other 50 percent of royalty revenue from North American sales of the product, and also may receive a royalty on another Astellas product under the terms of the company's collaboration agreement with Astellas Pharma US, Inc.

"With the funds from this non-dilutive financing and multiple product-related revenue streams, we believe CV Therapeutics now has the funds to become cash flow positive and meet the debt obligation which is putable in 2010, both without requiring capital market financing or partnership dollars," said Louis G. Lange, M.D., Ph.D., chairman and chief executive officer of CV Therapeutics. "We are aggressively pursuing a partner to support Ranexa commercialization and this additional financial independence provides important leverage for managing both the balance sheet and our discussions with potential partners."

CV Therapeutics owns the rights for regadenoson outside of North America and currently expects to submit a marketing a
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