SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Dec 1, 2008 -- Theravance, Inc. (NasdaqGM:THRX - News) today reported that equity awards were made to five new employees. Pursuant to Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4350(i)(1)(A)(iv), the equity awards were granted under the Theravance, Inc. 2008 New Employee Equity Incentive Plan, which the Board of Directors of Theravance adopted to facilitate the granting of equity awards to new employees. In accordance with Nasdaq rules, these grants were made under an equity incentive plan without stockholder approval. Nasdaq rules require a public announcement of equity awards to be made under this type of plan. Five employees were granted equity awards to acquire an aggregate of 171,376 shares of the Company's common stock, of which 166,000 are stock options and 5,376 are restricted stock unit awards. These equity awards vest over approximately four years and the options expire in 10 years assuming continued employment. No executive officers received any award under this plan. The exercise price for the option shares granted is $6.15, which was the closing price of Theravance common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market as such price was reported by NASDAQ on the date of grant.

About Theravance

Theravance is a biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of internally discovered product candidates. Theravance is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule medicines across a number of therapeutic areas including respiratory disease, bacterial infections and gastrointestinal motility dysfunction. The company's key programs include: telavancin for the treatment of serious Gram-positive bacterial infections with Astellas Pharma Inc., the Horizon program and the Bifunctional Muscarinic Antagonist-Beta2 Agonist (MABA) program with GlaxoSmithKline plc, and the Gastrointestinal Motility Dysfunction program. By leveraging its proprietary insight of multivalency toward drug discovery focused primarily on validated targets, Theravance is pursuing a next generation strategy designed to discover superior medicines in areas of significant unmet medical need. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.theravance.com.

THERAVANCE®, the Theravance logo, and MEDICINES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE® are registered trademarks of Theravance, Inc.

     Contact Information:
     Michael W. Aguiar
     Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
     650-808-4100
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