TRIANGLE ANNOUNCES INTELLIGENT THERAPEUTIC SOLUTIONS

Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc, announced the formation of a new health information technology company, Intelligent Therapeutic Solutions Inc, and the initial funding of such company by Virco Group N.V and Pythagoras Participations, cvba.

Intelligent Therapeutic Solutions Inc, (ITS) is a health information technology company formed to provide solutions in the management of patients with chronic and complex diseases, focusing primarily at the point-of-care on the provider-patient relationship. The company's first product in development is the HIV Therapy Expert (HIV-TE), a comprehensive individualized patient management system using proprietary integrated artificial intelligence (AI) technology to provide therapeutic decision support for healthcare professionals and patients confronting the deadly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS.

Virco Group and Pythagoras Participations have agreed to invest a combined $15 million in ITS to support the continued development of therapeutic decision support software for the management of HIV-infected patients. Of the $15 million, $10 million has been invested and the remaining $5 million will be invested on or before June 30, 2000. Virco and ITS agree to collaborate on potential future services and products for healthcare providers and patients faced with this and other diseases. Upon receipt of the entire $15 million investment, Triangle will own 29% of ITS, Virco 16.5%, Pythagoras 16.5%; the remainder will be held by employees of ITS and Triangle, calculated on a fully diluted basis, including a reserved pool of options for ITS employees.

ITS was formed early this year by the consolidation of 5Gen, a Durham- based software company, with the group within Triangle responsible for the development of the HIV Therapy Expert (HIV-TE) program. Originally designed to facilitate clinical trials of Triangle drug candidates, HIV-TE's broader potential utility to provide healthcare professionals with medical management tools for HIV-infected patients emerged during the past several years of development. HIV-TE delivers therapeutic decision support by integrating and processing patient clinical and laboratory test data, medical history, and other patient-specific information through expert knowledge bases using a proprietary artificial intelligence inference engine. The expert knowledge bases were developed and are updated through an ongoing collaboration with a panel of physicians recognized as experts in the clinical management of HIV/AIDS. HIV-TE has capabilities for electronic medical records, chart functions, drug-drug interaction checking, interpretation of genetic mutations, and context-specific links to medical information content sites. HIV-TE is currently in pre-Beta testing at seven academic medical centers in the United States.

"Given the complexities of managing the treatment of HIV infected patients, we believe that applying artificial intelligence to this process should make the healthcare provider's job significantly easier. In addition, such a system could provide the benefits of quality assurance and quality control in the physician/patient setting," said Dr. David W. Barry, Chairman and CEO of Triangle Pharmaceuticals. "Since the inception of Triangle, our focus has been on the leading edge of developing treatments for serious viral diseases. We believe that ITS will take the next step forward - to ensure that every patient receives the best possible therapy based for his or her individual circumstances," stated Dr. Barry.

"Healthcare providers will soon have a powerful tool to fully leverage the data they receive for each individual patient. HIV-TE may assist healthcare providers in improving both the quality and effectiveness of their interactions with the patient," said Dr. Bruce McCreedy, CEO of Intelligent Therapeutic Solutions.

The founders and executive management of ITS include recognized experts in the areas of infectious diseases, antiviral drug development, clinical diagnostic testing and information technology. The board of directors of ITS will include: David W. Barry, M.D., chairman and CEO of Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Paul Stoffels, M.D., CEO of Virco, and Marc van Rompaey, president of Pythagoras Participations. Bruce McCreedy, Ph.D., formerly vice president, clinical virology and diagnostics for Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc, is the CEO of ITS. Additional founding members of ITS include Jason Lucas, chief scientific officer; David Hadden, vice president, software development & Internet strategy; Joseph Sollee, general counsel & vice president, business development; and Walter Capone, chief financial officer & vice president, commercial operations.

"As an innovator and leader in the field of specialized diagnostic testing, Virco sees that by working with the team at ITS, both companies have the potential to provide tremendous benefits to healthcare providers and patients affected by serious, chronic diseases," stated Dr. Paul Stoffels, CEO of Virco.

Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc, is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development of new antiviral drug candidates, with a particular focus on therapies for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), including the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and hepatitis B virus (HBV). Triangle drug candidates under development for HIV and/or HBV include Coviracil (emtricitabine), Coactinon (emivirine), DAPD, L-FMAU and DMP- 450. More information about Triangle's portfolio, management and product development strategy is available on Triangle Pharmaceuticals' Website: www.tripharm.com.

Virco is a multinational biotechnology company with operating subsidiaries in the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It applies the most advanced technologies in molecular biology, automation, ultra high- throughput screening and electronic dataprocessing to the diagnosis and management of HIV, other infectious diseases and cancer. Virco believes it provides the most sophisticated and comprehensive portfolio of phenotyping and genotyping decision support tools for physicians treating HIV-infected patients. In the U.S., Virco promotes its testing services via the sales force of Gilead Sciences and provides its testing services via Laboratory Corporation of America Holding and other laboratories as well as directly to major AIDS centers in Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia. For further information, please visit Virco's Website: www.vircolab.com.

Pythagoras Participations cvba. is a fund and participation company, which offers a platform for stakeholders to invest in start-up and high-growth potential ventures. The partners of Pythagoras n.v. have experience in running businesses in the software and IT industries, as well as expertise as investment bankers and venture capitalists. Further information about Pythagoras Participations is available on their Website: www.pythagoras.be.

Intelligent Therapeutic Solutions Inc, is a new health information technology company formed to provide solutions in the management of patients with chronic and complex diseases, focusing primarily at the point-of-care on the provider-patient relationship. The company's first product in development is the HIV Therapy Expert (HIV-TE), a comprehensive individualized patient management system using proprietary integrated artificial intelligence (AI) technology to provide therapeutic decision support for healthcare professionals and patients confronting the deadly virus that causes AIDS. For further information regarding ITS, please visit us at: www.therapyexpert.com.