ICON Announces The Acquisition Of Healthcare Discoveries Inc

ICON (NASDAQ:ICLR), a global provider of outsourced development
services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device
industries, today announced that it has acquired Healthcare
Discoveries Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Catalyst Pharma Group
Inc. Under the terms of the agreement ICON will pay an initial cash
consideration of $12M. If certain performance milestones are achieved
in 2008, a further consideration, up to a maximum of $10m may be
payable.

Healthcare Discoveries operate an 85 bed clinical pharmacology
unit in San Antonio, Texas and have significant experience of
delivering high quality early phase development programmes.

"The acquisition of Healthcare Discoveries is an important step
for ICON" commented ICON CEO Peter Gray. "It gives us a clinical
pharmacology platform in the United States to complement our existing
European Phase I operations. As well as gaining an outstanding
facility, we are bringing into ICON an experienced team that has an
excellent market reputation"

Healthcare Discoveries will become part of a comprehensive early
phase development portfolio within the ICON Development Solutions
division, which includes an existing 80 bed clinical pharmacology unit
based in Manchester, England. Dr Thomas Frey, President of this
division, added "The investment in Healthcare Discoveries will enable
us to meet the growing demand for highly scientific first-in-human and
full spectrum of clinical pharmacology studies that are a critical
part of the drug development process. We look forward to integrating
these additional capabilities into our broad drug development service
portfolio"

Dr Richard Anthony, CEO of Catalyst Pharma Group commented "We are
delighted that Healthcare Discoveries will become part of the ICON
group. Catalyst has worked with Dr. Dennis Ruff, President of
Healthcare Discoveries, for the past four years to build a reputation
for excellence in Phase I research". Dr. Anthony added "We believe
ICON´s early phase development experience, focus on quality and
business culture is an ideal fit with Healthcare Discoveries. Catalyst
looks forward to continuing to work with Healthcare Discoveries in the
future".

About ICON plc

ICON plc is a global provider of outsourced development services
to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries.
The Company specializes in the strategic development, management and
analysis of programs that support clinical development - from compound
selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. ICON teams have successfully
conducted over 1,900 development projects and over 2,300 consultancy
engagements across all major therapeutic areas. ICON currently has
approximately 5,600 employees, operating from 67 locations in 37
countries. Further information is available at www.iconplc.com

About Catalyst Pharma Group Inc

Catalyst Pharma Group Inc. (Catalyst) was formed specifically to
meet the needs of companies with limited United States presence which
are seeking to develop, approve, and market pharmaceuticals in the
U.S. CPG is a drug development services organization specializing in
providing contiguous, integrated, cost-effective drug development
solutions through internal divisions and the combined services of our
partnered companies. For more information visit
http://www.catalystpharmagroup.com