AtheroGenics Names Brian Blakey as Vice President of Marketing

AtheroGenics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AGIX), a pharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, today named Brian Blakey, Pharm.D. to the newly created position of Vice President of Marketing. Dr. Blakey will report directly to Mark P. Colonnese, AtheroGenics' Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations.

"I'm pleased to welcome Brian to the AtheroGenics team as we begin our transition from a pharmaceutical research and development organization to a commercial enterprise. He brings to AtheroGenics a proven track record in marketing novel therapeutics that treat serious disease conditions," commented Mr. Colonnese. "Brian's leadership will also be invaluable as we advance our pre-commercial preparations for AGI-1067 in partnership with AstraZeneca."

Dr. Blakey comes to AtheroGenics from Novo Nordisk in Princeton, N.J. where he served as Senior Director of Diabetes Marketing. At Novo Nordisk, Dr. Blakey led the U.S. marketing teams responsible for the development of pre-market and launch activities, in addition to overseeing the strategic planning for selected marketed products.

Prior to his tenure at Novo Nordisk, Dr. Blakey was Senior Director, Cardiovascular Marketing for biotechnology company, Corgentech, Inc. Previous to his experience at Corgentech, Dr. Blakey spent six years in increasingly responsible positions at GlaxoSmithKline, culminating in a Director level role leading the franchise professional team for Avandia/Avandamet.

Dr. Blakey received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.

About AtheroGenics

AtheroGenics is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, including heart disease (atherosclerosis), rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. The Company has two drug development programs currently in the clinic. AtheroGenics' lead compound, AGI-1067, is being evaluated in the pivotal Phase III ARISE clinical trial as an oral therapy for the treatment of atherosclerosis, in collaboration with AstraZeneca. AGI-1096 is a novel, oral agent in Phase I that is being developed for the prevention of organ transplant rejection in collaboration with Astellas. AtheroGenics also has preclinical programs in rheumatoid arthritis and asthma utilizing its proprietary vascular protectant® technology. For more information about AtheroGenics, please visit http://www.atherogenics.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this press release that relate to events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future are deemed to be forward-looking statements, and can be identified by words such as "believes," "intends," "expects" and similar expressions. Such statements are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and performances to differ materially from those referred to in such statements. These risks include statements which address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, such as projections about clinical trial results, our future results of operations or our financial condition, research, development and commercialization of our product candidates, anticipated trends in our business, and other risks that could cause actual results to differ materially. These and other risks are discussed in AtheroGenics' Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including, but not limited to, the risks discussed in AtheroGenics' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005, and in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2006. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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