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VIA Pharmaceuticals to Host Investor Science Briefing on the Role of Inflammation in Cardiovascular Disease on Tuesday, September 16

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 September 2008, 09:00 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , a biotechnology company focused on the development of compounds for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, announced today that it will host a science briefing on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 12:00pm Eastern Time in New York City. Keynote speaker Dr. Peter Libby, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, will present "Inflammation in Atherosclerosis: Theory and Practice." Following Dr. Libby's presentation, Dr. Lawrence K. Cohen, chief executive officer of VIA Pharmaceuticals, will moderate an expert panel.

"We are pleased to have Dr. Libby speak about the importance of inflammation in atherosclerosis," said Lawrence K. Cohen, Ph.D., chief executive officer of VIA Pharmaceuticals. "While there are a number of currently available therapies that help reduce risk factors of heart disease, they do not address inflammation, an underlying cause of atherosclerosis and complications such as heart attack and stroke."

Dr. Libby is the Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts and serves as the Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also directs the D.W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at Harvard. His current major research focus is the role of inflammation in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Dr. Libby has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research accomplishments. His areas of clinical expertise include general and preventive cardiology. Dr. Libby writes a cardiovascular blog, "Consults-Experts on the Front Lines of Medicine", for the New York Times website (http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/). He is also the co-founder of a non-profit organization called The International Partnership for Critical Markers of Disease to promote the development, evaluation, and appropriate clinical utilization of biomarkers. Dr. Libby earned his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego, and completed his training in internal medicine and cardiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women's Hospital).

Webcast Information

A live audiovisual webcast of the presentation can be accessed from the investor section of the VIA website, http://www.viapharmaceuticals.com/ beginning at 12:00pm EDT on Tuesday, September 16. The webcast will be archived for at least 14 days following the presentation.

About VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the development of compounds for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. VIA is building a pipeline of small-molecule drugs that target a significant unmet medical need: reducing inflammation in the blood vessel wall, which is an underlying cause of atherosclerosis and its complications, including heart attack and stroke. The company's lead drug candidate, VIA-2291, is in multiple

Phase 2 clinical studies in patients with cardiovascular disease. For more information, visit: http://www.viapharmaceuticals.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to future events or to VIA's future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause VIA's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may,""could,""expect,""intend,""plan,""seek,""anticipate,""believe,""estimate,""predict,""potential,""continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond VIA's control and which could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to:

-- our ability to obtain necessary financing; -- our ability to control our operating expenses; -- our ability to recruit and enroll patients for the FDG-PET clinical trial; -- failure to obtain sufficient data from enrolled patients that can be used to evaluate VIA-2291, thereby impairing the validity or statistical significance of our clinical trials; -- our ability to successfully complete our clinical trials of VIA-2291 on expected timetables and the outcomes of such clinical trials; -- complexities in designing and implementing cardiovascular clinical trials using histological examinations, measurement of biomarkers, medical imaging and atherosclerotic plaque bioassays; -- the results of our clinical trials, including without limitation, with respect to the safety and efficacy of VIA-2291; -- the outcome of any legal proceedings; -- our ability to obtain necessary FDA approvals; -- our ability to successfully commercialize VIA-2291; -- our ability to obtain and protect our intellectual property related to our product candidates; -- our potential for future growth and the development of our product pipeline; -- our ability to form and maintain collaborative relationships to develop and commercialize our product candidates; -- general economic and business conditions; and -- the other risks described under Item IA "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007 on file with the SEC.

All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements set forth above. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and VIA undertakes no obligation to update publicly any of these statements in light of new information or future events.

VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

CONTACT: James G. Stewart, Senior Vice President and Chief FinancialOfficer of VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., +1-415-283-2204; or Media, DanielleBertrand of WeissComm Partners, +1-415-946-1056, dbertrand@wcpglobal.com; orInvestors, San Francisco, Ian Clements, or Lauren Glaser, +1-415-392-3385, orNew York City, Brian Korb, +1-646-378-2923, all of The Trout Group, for VIAPharmaceuticals, Inc.

Web site: http://www.viapharmaceuticals.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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