OSI Pharmaceuticals Announces the Appointment of Mr. Pierre Legault as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

  
    
  
  
    
      OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSIP) announced today the appointment 
      of Mr. Pierre Legault as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial 
      Officer and Treasurer. Mr. Legault has over 16 years of senior 
      management experience in the pharmaceutical industry including several 
      senior positions at Sanofi-Aventis and Aventis, most notably Worldwide 
      President of Sanofi-Aventis Dermatology and Senior Vice President and 
      Chief Financial Officer of Aventis Pharmaceutical North America. Mr. 
      Legault will add extensive business and strategic expertise to the 
      Company’s leadership team and assume responsibility for all financial 
      aspects of the Company’s activities. Mr. Legault will report to the 
      Chief Executive Officer, Colin Goddard, Ph.D. and will be a leading 
      member of OSI’s Executive Management Team. He will assume the role on 
      December 29, 2008.
    
    
      “We are delighted that Pierre is joining the OSI team,” stated Dr. 
      Goddard. “Pierre has led finance and business teams in companies 
      throughout the healthcare industry ranging from large pharma to major 
      retail pharmacy chains and we are confident that, with his extensive 
      financial and management experience, he will be a significant 
      contributor to this Company’s future growth and success.”
    
    
      Mr. Legault will succeed Mr. Michael G. Atieh who will be stepping down 
      from the CFO position on December 29, 2008, pending his previously 
      announced retirement which will now occur effective January 5, 2009.
    
    
      “We’d like to take the opportunity to thank Mike for his service to OSI, 
      both over the last three years as CFO and prior to that as a member of 
      our Board of Directors, and to wish him well in his future endeavours,” 
      added Dr. Goddard.
    
    
      Mr. Legault, 48, was most recently at Rite Aid Corporation where he was 
      Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer 
      following his instrumental role in the 2007 merger of Eckerd into Rite 
      Aid. Mr. Legault served as Executive Vice President of The Jean Coutu 
      Group, running its Brooks Eckerd operations in the United States from 
      January 2006 until June 2007. Prior to his time at Sanofi-Aventis and 
      Aventis, he was Global Senior Vice President Finance and Treasury of 
      Hoechst Marion Roussel and Chief Financial Officer of Marion Merrell Dow 
      (North America). Mr. Legault is a Board member of numerous corporations, 
      belongs to several professional associations, including the Finance 
      Executive Institute and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.
    
    
      About OSI Pharmaceuticals
    
    
      OSI Pharmaceuticals is committed to "shaping medicine and changing 
      lives" by discovering, developing and commercializing high-quality and 
      novel pharmaceutical products designed to extend life and/or improve the 
      quality of life for patients with cancer and diabetes/obesity. The 
      Company’s oncology programs are focused on developing molecular targeted 
      therapies designed to change the paradigm of cancer care. OSI’s 
      diabetes/obesity efforts are committed to the generation of novel, 
      targeted therapies for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity. 
      OSI's flagship product, Tarceva® (erlotinib), is the first 
      drug discovered and developed by OSI to obtain FDA approval and the only 
      EGFR inhibitor to have demonstrated the ability to improve survival in 
      both non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer patients in 
      certain settings. OSI markets Tarceva through partnerships with 
      Genentech, Inc. in the United States and with Roche throughout the rest 
      of the world. For additional information about OSI, please visit .
    
    
      This news release contains forward-looking statements. These 
      statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that 
      may cause actual future experience and results to differ materially from 
      the statements made. Factors that might cause such a difference 
      include, among others, the completion of clinical trials, the FDA review 
      process and other governmental regulation, OSI's and its collaborators' 
      abilities to successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates, 
      competition from other pharmaceutical companies, the ability to 
      effectively market products, and other factors described in OSI 
      Pharmaceuticals' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.