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Versartis to Provide Update on Product Pipeline at Two Technology Conferences

New Technology Being Used to Extend Half-Life of Drugs for Metabolic and Endocrine Diseases

Redwood City, CA  – September 14, 2009 – Versartis, Inc., an emerging company developing novel biologics with enhanced properties for patients with metabolic diseases, will provide an update on the progress of its lead product, VRS-859 (exenatide-XTEN), and earlier stage product, VRS-317 (hGH-XTEN) at two separate meetings this month.

Jeffrey Cleland, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Versartis, will present the company’s corporate overview at BioPharma America 2009 on Friday, September 18.  BioPharma America 2009, the EBD Group’s second annual international partnering conference for the global life science industry, is being held in San Francisco from September 16 through 18.

On Wednesday, September 23, Dr. Cleland will participate in the IBC Protein Engineering & Design Conference session “Engineering for Improved Properties: Stability, Half-Life, Pharmacokinetics and Safety” to discuss the company’s “Half-life Extension and In Vivo Biological Activity of Peptide and Protein Therapeutics.”  This meeting is being held in conjunction with the IBC Beyond Antibodies Conference in San Diego from September 21 through 23. 

XTEN is a novel hydrophilic amino acid sequence that prolongs the half-life of proteins and peptides.  New therapeutic compounds developed by Versartis using the XTEN technology are expected to provide enhanced stability and less frequent dosing requirements with potentially fewer patient side effects.  VRS-859, a once monthly dosage form of the GLP-1 analog exenatide, is in development and initial clinical results in patients with type 2 diabetes are expected by 1H 2010.

About Versartis
Versartis, Inc., a Redwood City, California biotechnology company, is developing therapeutics for the treatment of metabolic diseases and endocrine disorders.  Versartis is pursuing the development of new therapeutic proteins utilizing the Amunix Inc. novel half-life extension XTEN technology.

Versartis, a joint venture company between Amunix, Inc. and Index Ventures, owns and develops the novel drug candidates in metabolic diseases and endocrinology that it has licensed from Amunix. Versartis has preclinical proof-of-concept for three product candidates in its pipeline: exenatide and IL-1ra for diabetes, and hGH for growth hormone deficiency. Further information on Versartis can be found at www.versartis.com.

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