John D. Baxter, M.D. Joins Bionovo's Board of Directors

EMERYVILLE, Calif., April 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Bionovo Inc.
(Nasdaq: BNVI) announced today the appointment of John D. Baxter, M.D., to the
company's Board of Directors. Dr. Baxter has extensive experience in academic
research as well as with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and in
particular in advancing endocrine drugs.
"We are very excited to have John on board as we are advancing our
clinical trial programs," said Isaac Cohen, O.M.D., Bionovo's Chairman and
CEO. He added, "John is a pioneer in endocrine research as well as one of the
first to bridge the academic and industrial relationship, transforming his
major discoveries in science into therapies. John's work in endocrinology and
his experience with Wall Street make him a perfect fit with our platform at
Bionovo in women's health".
Dr. Baxter says, "I'm very impressed by the potential for Bionovo's drugs
and the knowledge of their mechanisms of action. There appear to be solid
studies of the molecular toxicology of the drugs, as well as promising
clinical results. I believe the pipeline of Bionovo will provide new therapies
for women."
Dr. Baxter and his collaborators first cloned the growth hormone gene and
achieved recombinant DNA synthesis of growth hormone in bacteria which led to
the development of growth hormone as a product. His work provided critical
advances in recombinant technologies for gene and protein expression as well
as the understanding of human growth and development. His group also first
cloned bovine growth hormone gene sequences and produced bovine growth hormone
that subsequently was developed as a product, that has made a difference to
the dairy industry, and promises to increase the ability for food production
worldwide.
Dr. Baxter was the first to elucidate the x-ray crystallographic structure
of a liganded nuclear receptor domain. This discovery has greatly enhanced our
understanding of how drugs interact with these receptors and provides insight
into how to develop improved pharmaceuticals. Bionovo's drug candidates, like
20% of pharmaceuticals, act through nuclear receptors.
John was also first to discover a receptor defect (for any hormone)
causing hormone resistance. This discovery is critical to understanding of
many diseases such as diabetes and breast cancer. In collaboration with
Bristol Myers-Squibb and Karo- Bio A.B. he has helped to develop drugs now
being tested for treatment of obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis.
Dr. Baxter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the past
President of the Endocrine Society. He was Chief of the Division of
Endocrinology and Director of Metabolic Research Unit at the University of
California, San Francisco. He was a founder and director of Scios/Nova,
Karo-Bio A.B. (Stockholm), Calhoun Vision,, and SciClone Pharmaceuticals
(SCLN). He is the largest shareholder, Director, and member of the Executive
Committee for One Touch Technologies. After completing an undergraduate degree
in Chemistry from the University of Kentucky, John received his medical degree
from Yale University. Dr. Baxter is currently: Senior Member, Co-Director of
the Diabetes Center, and Director of the Genomics Core of the Methodist
Hospital Research Institute, and Chief of Endocrinology, the Department of
Medicine, The Methodist Hospital, Houston TX.
Bionovo, Inc.
Bionovo is a pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and
development of safe and effective treatments for women's health and cancer,
markets with significant unmet needs and billions in potential annual revenue.
The company applies its expertise in the biology of menopause and cancer to
design new drugs derived from botanical sources which have novel mechanisms of
action. Based on the results of early and mid-stage clinical trials, Bionovo
believes they have discovered new classes of drug candidates within their rich
pipeline with the potential to be leaders in their markets. Bionovo is
headquartered in Emeryville, California and is traded on the NASDAQ Capital
Market under the symbol, "BNVI". For more information about Bionovo and its
programs, visit: http://www.bionovo.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the
business of Bionovo, Inc. that can be identified by the use of forward-looking
terminology such as "believes," "expects," or similar expressions. Such
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties,
including uncertainties relating to product development, efficacy and safety,
regulatory actions or delays, the ability to obtain or maintain patent or
other proprietary intellectual property protection, market acceptance,
physician acceptance, third party reimbursement, future capital requirements,
competition in general and other factors that may cause actual results to be
materially different from those described herein as anticipated, believed,
estimated or expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be
described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, which are available at http://www.sec.gov. Bionovo, Inc. is under
no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or alter
its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.
SOURCE Bionovo Inc.

Investors, Lauren Glaser of The Trout Group, +1-415-392-3310,
lglaser@troutgroup.com, For Bionovo Inc.; or Media, Tom Chesterman of Bionovo
Inc., +1-510-420-4189, tchesterman@bionovo.com