Crystal Bank Developments

Sareum Holdings PLC
24 November 2005


For immediate release                                          24 November 2005


                              SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC


                          ("Sareum" or "The Company")

              Success with Crystal Bank Protein Structure Resource

Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug discovery
and services business, is pleased to announce the latest developments with its
"Crystal Bank" resource of rapidly accessible protein structures first announced
in September 2005.

To date, Sareum has signed three fee-for-service collaborations involving
Crystal Bank proteins, providing an important source of revenues to support its
in-house research programs.

Sareum's Crystal Bank now comprises 16 therapeutically relevant proteins which
are the targets for research into many important diseases including cancer,
inflammation and metabolic disorders. Example structures include GSK3 beta, p38
MAP kinase, CDK2/Cyclin A2, Zap-70, Erk2 and PPAR delta.

Crystal Bank protein structures are available to pharmaceutical and
biotechnology company clients in complex with their potential drug candidates on
a fee-for-service basis. This information assists clients in accelerating their
drug discovery by providing a valuable insight into the precise nature of the
interaction between these potential drug candidates and their target proteins.

Commenting on the announcement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim
Mitchell, said: "We are extremely pleased to announce this growing list of
available protein structures and the commercial results achieved so far. This
success demonstrates our expertise in rapidly providing novel and valuable
protein structural information that will advance research into novel drug
treatments."

For further information:

Sareum Holdings                                                   01223 497700
Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer

Buchanan Communications                                          020 7466 5000
Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson

Notes for editors:

About Crystal Bank

Sareum's Crystal Bank is a highly valuable resource for clients requiring fast
turnaround of structural data that shows how their compounds bind with selected
protein targets. Such information accelerates the validation and selection of
novel lead compounds and is therefore invaluable at both the hit-to-lead and the
lead optimisation stages of drug discovery research.

Crystal Bank is a unique and expanding collection of important protein targets
that are known to be of significant therapeutic relevance. These proteins come
from a range of protein classes and have all been analysed and understood to a
level where we can rapidly and cost-effectively generate ligand co-complex
structural data for our clients' compounds. The co-complex structural data, and
the associated understanding of the Structure-Activity Relationship, help our
clients to:

   • Prioritise leads based on actual and potential interactions with
     proteins
   • Boost ligand potency
   • Overcome selectivity issues
   • Identify sites to attach PK-modifying groups without affecting potency
     or selectivity
   • Identify lead hopping opportunities

Sareum's Crystal Bank currently comprises 16 structures, including GSK3 beta,
p38 MAP kinase, CDK2/Cyclin A2, Zap-70, Erk2 and PPAR delta. The full list is
available on request.

About Sareum Holdings plc

Sareum Holdings plc is a specialist structure-based drug discovery and services
business headquartered in Cambridge, UK. The Company was formed in August 2003
to discover new drugs for the treatment of cancer and to provide a range of drug
discovery services to the pharmaceutical industry. Sareum's unique approach aims
to halve the time it takes to discover new drug candidates.

Structure-based drug discovery involves the determination of a disease causing
protein's three-dimensional structure. Once the structure is known, novel
chemical entities are designed to 'lock-in' to the protein with the aim of
reversing or arresting a disease's progression.

Sareum's approach to structure-based drug discovery is to produce multiple
recombinant proteins primarily through its unique baculovirus expression system;
determine their structure using x-ray crystallography; and then use its
innovative template-molecule x-ray screening technology to identify new chemical
entities designed to interact with the target protein. Sareum then uses its
high-throughput medicinal chemistry platform to rapidly synthesise further
molecules and develop the most promising into potential drug candidates.

Sareum provides its specialist drug discovery capabilities to partners in the
pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The Company aims to successfully
deliver: Programmes for complete gene-to-candidate structure-based discovery;
projects to accelerate or improve the productivity of specific activities; and
drug candidates for licensing at the Phase I or Phase II clinical trials stage.

Sareum joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 and
trades under the symbol SAR. For further information, please visit
www.sareum.co.uk






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