Alteon Announces Investor Update Conference Call Monday, December 20, 2004, 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time

Alteon Announces Investor Update Conference Call Monday, December
20, 2004, 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time
--- Conference Call to be Webcast --- 


PARSIPPANY, N.J., Dec. 14  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alteon Inc. (AMEX:ALT)
announced that it will hold a regularly scheduled investor update conference
call on Monday, December 20, 2004 at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Anyone interested in participating in the live conference call should RSVP to
Nancy Regan at .  There will be a full question and answer period during the
call.

The call-in telephone number for the conference call will be 1-800-967-7184. 
International participants may call [phone]. Participants should call
approximately 5-10 minutes before 4:00 p.m.  In addition, the conference call
will be accessible through a webcast on the company website,
http://www.alteon.com/ in the Investor Relations section, and a digital
rebroadcast will be available through December 27, 2004 at 11:59 P.M. by
dialing 1-888-203-1112, passcode 979982 for domestic callers and [phone],
passcode 979982 for international callers.

About Alteon

Alteon is developing several new classes of drugs that have shown the potential
to reverse or slow down diseases of aging and complications of diabetes.  These
compounds have an impact on a fundamental pathological process caused by the
progressive formation of protein-glucose complexes called Advanced Glycation
End-products (A.G.E.s).  The formation and crosslinking of A.G.E.s lead to a
loss of flexibility and function in body tissues and organs and have been shown
to be a causative factor in many age-related diseases and diabetic
complications.  Alteon has created a library of novel classes of compounds
targeting the A.G.E. pathway.

Alteon's lead compound alagebrium chloride (formerly ALT-711), the only A.G.E.
Crosslink Breaker in advanced human testing, has demonstrated safety and
efficacy in several Phase 2 trials and is actively being developed for systolic
hypertension and heart failure.  Over 1200 patients have been involved in
alagebrium's human clinical trials to date, of whom approximately 900 have
received active compound.  Ongoing clinical trials include the phase 2b
systolic hypertension trial, SPECTRA (Systolic Pressure Efficacy and Safety
Trial of Alagebrium), and the phase 2a heart failure trial, PEDESTAL (Patients
with Impaired Ejection Fraction and Diastolic Dysfunction: Efficacy and Safety
Trial of ALagebrium), as well as a third trial exploring mechanism of action in
endothelial dysfunction.  For more detailed information about alagebrium,
please visit the scientific publications section of the Alteon website,
http://www.alteon.com/.

Any statements contained in this press release that relate to future plans,
events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties including, but not limited to, those relating to technology and
product development (including the possibility that early clinical trial
results may not be predictive of results that will be obtained in large-scale
testing or that any clinical trials will not demonstrate sufficient safety and
efficacy to obtain requisite approvals or will not result in marketable
products), regulatory approval processes, intellectual property rights and
litigation, competitive products, ability to obtain financing, and other risks
identified in Alteon's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The
information contained in this press release is accurate as of the date
indicated.  Actual results, events or performance may differ materially. Alteon
undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revision to
these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or
circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of
unanticipated events. 

DATASOURCE: Alteon, Inc.



CONTACT: Susan M. Pietropaolo, Director, Corporate Communications &

Investor Relations of Alteon, Inc., [phone]



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

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