Cardiome Announces Positive Interim Phase 2b Results for Oral Vernakalant and Engages Merrill Lynch as Strateg...(ately 590 patients are expected to enter...),Health

Cardiome also announced that it has received detailed expressions of interest from global and regional pharmaceutical companies in pursuit of partnership opportunities for vernakalant. Cardiome's Board of Directors has engaged Merrill Lynch & Co. as its financial advisor to assist in evaluating these partnership opportunities as well as alternative strategies beyond partnerships to maximize shareholder value, including acquisitions, divestitures and the sale of all or part of the Company.

"We began a partnership cycle in the second half of 2007 in anticipation of the U.S. approval of vernakalant (iv) and results from the vernakalant (oral) Phase 2b trial," said Doug Janzen, President and Chief Business Officer of Cardiome. "In light of today's positive results, we look forward to furthering our partnership discussions with those companies who have expressed interest to date, and welcome Merrill Lynch's assistance in ensuring shareholder value is maximized. Obviously, there can be no assurance that Cardiome's review of partnership opportunities and other strategic alternatives will result in any specific transaction, and while this review is about to be initiated, no timetable has been set for its completion."

Cardiome will hold a teleconference and webcast on Monday, March 17, 2008 at 9:00am Eastern (6:00am Pacific). To access the conference call, please dial 416-340-8010 or 866-540-8136. There will be a separate dial-in line for analysts on which we will respond to questions at the end of the call. The webcast can be accessed through Cardiome's website at http://www.cardiome.com.

Webcast and telephone replays of the conference call will be available approximately two hours after the completion of the call through April 17, 2
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