Oscient Pharmaceuticals and Auxilium Pharmaceuticals have agreed to conclude their co-promotion partnership for Testim 1 per cent testosterone gel, effective with the close of business on August 31, 2006.

With the conclusion of this partnership, Oscient and Auxilium will share profits from primary care sales as provided for by their arrangement through August 31, 2006. Oscient will also receive a $ 1.8 million payment from Auxilium as additional compensation for commercialization efforts by Oscient's sales force to date.

"The co-promotion partnership was a strategic fit for our biopharmaceutical franchise over the past 16 months, a period during which TESTIM market share among primary care physicians grew from 10.6 per cent to 16.5 per cent," stated Steven M. Rauscher, President and CEO of Oscient Pharmaceuticals. "Concluding the co-promotion agreement at this time will allow us to focus additional sales and marketing resources on the launch of ANTARA, our recently acquired product for dyslipidemia, and on FACTIVE, as it enters its third respiratory tract infection season."

Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company committed to the clinical development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to address unmet medical needs. The company is marketing FACTIVE (gemifloxacin mesylate) tablets, approved by the FDA for the treatment of acute bacterial exacerbations of chronic bronchitis and community-acquired pneumonia of mild to moderate severity and ANTARA 130 mg (fenofibrate) capsules, FDA-approved for the adjunct treatment of hypercholesterolemia (high blood cholesterol) and hypertriglyceridemia (high triglycerides) in combination with diet.