Alexza Pharmaceuticals Promotes Mark K. Oki to Vice President, Finance and Controller

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 22  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXA) announced today that Mark K. Oki has been promoted to Vice President, Finance and Controller. Mr. Oki joined Alexza as Controller and Director in 2006, shortly after completion of Alexza's initial public offering.  He was most recently Senior Director and Controller.  Prior to joining Alexza, Mr. Oki served as Controller from June 2001 to April 2006 at Pharmacyclics, Inc., a publicly traded development stage pharmaceutical company.  From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Oki held several positions at Incyte Genomics, including Assistant Controller.  From 1992 to 1997, Mr. Oki held several positions at Deloitte & Touche LLP, a public accounting firm.  Mr. Oki received his B.S. degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from San Jose State University.

"We are very pleased to announce Mark's promotion and welcome him to our management team," said August J. Moretti, Alexza SVP and Chief Financial Officer.  "Mark has been instrumental in our public reporting, and has a very solid working relationship with our Audit Committee, auditors and internal and external constituents.  We look forward to leveraging his leadership and experience as Alexza moves toward commercialization of its products."

About Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Alexza Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of novel, proprietary products for the acute treatment of central nervous system conditions.  Alexza's technology, the Staccato® system, vaporizes unformulated drug to form a condensation aerosol that, when inhaled, allows for rapid systemic drug delivery through deep lung inhalation.  The drug is quickly absorbed through the lungs into the bloodstream, providing speed of therapeutic onset that is comparable to intravenous administration, but with greater ease, patient comfort and convenience.

AZ-004 (Staccato loxapine) is Alexza's lead program, which is being developed for the rapid treatment of agitation in schizophrenic or bipolar disorder patients.  Alexza has completed and announced positive results from both of its AZ-004 Phase 3 clinical trials, submitted a New Drug Application submission in December 2009, and has a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date of October 11, 2010.  In February 2010, Alexza established a partnership with Biovail Laboratories International SRL, a subsidiary of Biovail Corporation (NYSE:BVF), to develop and commercialize AZ-004 in the U.S. and Canada.

Alexza has completed an end-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA for AZ-001 (Staccato prochlorperazine) and has completed two Phase 2 studies with AZ-104 (Staccato loxapine, low-dose).  Both product candidates are being developed for the acute treatment of migraine headache.

AZ-002 (Staccato alprazolam) has completed Phase 1 testing and one Phase 2a proof-of-concept clinical trial.  Product candidates that have completed Phase 1 testing are AZ-003 (Staccato fentanyl) for the treatment of breakthrough pain, and AZ-007 (Staccato zaleplon) for the treatment of insomnia.  More information, including this and past press releases from Alexza, is available online at http://www.alexza.com/.

This press release includes forward-looking statements. Any statement describing a product candidate or Alexza's goals, expectations or beliefs is a forward-looking statement, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and should be considered an at-risk statement. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, particularly those inherent in the process of developing and commercializing drugs. Alexza's forward-looking statements also involve assumptions that, if they prove incorrect, would cause its results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These and other risks concerning Alexza's business are described in additional detail in Alexza's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, and Alexza's other Periodic and Current Reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. 

DATASOURCE: Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc.



CONTACT:  Thomas B. King, President & CEO, [phone],

, or August J. Moretti, Senior Vice President and CFO,

[phone], , both of Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc.



Web Site:  http://www.alexza.com/ 

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