PAREXEL AND ACADIA COLLABORATE TO INCORPORATE PHARMACOGENOMICS INTO NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DRUG DEVELOPMENT

BOSTON, MA, November 28, 2000 — PAREXEL International Corporation (Nasdaq: PRXL) today announced a collaborative agreement with ACADIA Pharmaceuticals to provide pharmacogenomic services to clients developing neuropsychiatric products. PAREXEL will assist clients in using ACADIA’s proprietary functional genomics platform to streamline the clinical development process for Central Nervous System (CNS) compounds. ACADIA will provide data on patients’ variability of drug response, based on underlying genetic variation. Designing and conducting clinical trials based on this knowledge can speed clinical evaluation and improve overall clinical trial success rates by focusing on populations most likely to benefit from the drug.

“This agreement with ACADIA reflects our ongoing strategy of collaborating with other technology innovators to bring enhanced tools to the clinical development process,” said Warren C. Stern, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of PAREXEL’s Scientific and Medical Services Unit. “Together with ACADIA, we can apply these CNS-targeted genomic capabilities to both early stage clinical research to identify patients most likely to respond to a new treatment, as well as to later stage trials where there is a need to differentiate among competing products.”

“PAREXEL’s comprehensive CNS clinical development expertise makes it an ideal collaborator with which ACADIA can expand the application of its functional genomics capability,” said Mark R. Brann, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of ACADIA. “We highly value PAREXEL’s leadership in the area of CNS clinical trials management and we look forward to working together to improve the quality of CNS therapies.”

Overview of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals
ACADIA is an emerging leader in genomics-based drug discovery. ACADIA has developed a functional genomics platform that uniquely links a wide diversity of genomic and chemical information to validate drug targets and generate gene-specific small molecule drugs with improved therapeutic profiles. The Company has established a portfolio of drug discovery programs focused on neuropsychiatric and related disorders, and is commercializing this pipeline through licensing and discovery collaborations with pharmaceutical partners. The Company’s corporate headquarters and biological research facilities are located in San Diego, California and its chemistry research facilities are located in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Overview of PAREXEL
PAREXEL is one of the largest contract pharmaceutical outsourcing organizations in the world, providing a broad range of knowledge-based contract research, medical marketing and consulting services to the worldwide pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. With a commitment to providing solutions that accelerate time-to-market and peak market penetration, PAREXEL has developed significant expertise in clinical trials management, data management, biostatistical analysis, medical marketing, clinical pharmacology, regulatory and medical consulting, industry training and publishing and other drug development consulting services. The Company's integrated services, therapeutic area depth and sophisticated information technology, along with its experience in global drug development and product launch services, represent key competitive strengths. Headquartered near Boston, MA, PAREXEL operates in 45 locations throughout 29 countries around the world, and has approximately 4,200 employees.

This release may contain "forward-looking" statements regarding future results and events, including statements regarding expected financial results, future growth and customer demand that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "expects", "intends", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The Company's actual future results may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements contained in this release. Important factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, risks associated with: actual operating performance; actual expense savings and other operating improvements resulting from recent restructurings; the cancellation, revision, or delay of contracts, including those contracts in backlog; the Company's dependence on certain industries and clients; the Company's ability to manage growth and its ability to attract and retain employees; the Company's ability to complete additional acquisitions and to integrate newly acquired businesses or enter into new lines of business; government regulation of certain industries and clients; competition and consolidation within the pharmaceutical industry; the potential for significant liability to clients and third parties; the potential adverse impact of health care reform; and the effects of exchange rate fluctuations. Such factors and others are discussed more fully in the section entitled "Risk Factors" of the Company's Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2000.