Date: 11/17/2008 6:30:00 AM
ATLANTA, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vical Incorporated (Nasdaq: VICL) today announced that Alain P. Rolland, Pharm.D., Ph.D., the company's Senior Vice President, Product Development, was named a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). The AAPS Fellow designation is granted each year to select individuals on the basis of their scholarly and sustained level of superior and distinguished professional achievement and contributions to the pharmaceutical sciences, including original articles, scientific presentations, patents, mentoring of scientists, and development of new product candidates.

Dr. Rolland joined Vical as Vice President, Product Development in August 2002 and was named Senior Vice President, Product Development in April 2004. Dr. Rolland was Senior Vice President of Pre-Clinical Research and Development, and Head of The Woodlands Center of Valentis, Inc., from 2000 to 2002. From 1993 to 1999, he served in several positions at a predecessor company to Valentis, GeneMedicine, Inc., where he progressed from Director of Gene Delivery to Vice President of Research. From 1989 to 1993, he was the Head of Formulation Research at the Research & Development Center of Galderma International, or CIRD, in France. From 1987 to 1988, he was a scientist at the Advanced Drug Delivery Research Center of Ciba Geigy Pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom.

As an executive with over 20 years of leadership experience at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, Dr. Rolland has contributed to creating novel delivery technologies and products that have been evaluated in human clinical trials. He started his career in advanced drug delivery, pioneering research on nanotechnologies that led to the development of novel nanoparticles administered systemically to target anticancer drugs to specific tissues. He also innovated in the field of topical drug delivery by discovering that particulate systems (microspheres, liposomes) of defined properties could enable site-specific drug delivery. Over the past 15 years he has guided R&D scientists to create and develop a number of novel gene delivery technologies (e.g., peptide, polymer- and lipid-based) for delivering and targeting nucleic acids. The research work on those different delivery systems and scalable pharmaceutical formulations led to a number of seminal publications that paved the way for research and development of vaccines and therapeutic products evaluated in human clinical trials for infectious diseases, oncology and cardiovascular applications.

Dr. Rolland received his Pharm.D., DEA in Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Rennes University (France). He has published over 80 scientific articles and book chapters and has presented at more than a hundred scientific conferences. He has been a reviewer and served on editorial boards for several scientific journals, and has been the Editor-in-Chief of "Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology" since 2000. He is the editor of three books: "Pharmaceutical Particulate Carriers: Therapeutic Applications;" "Advanced Gene Delivery: From Concepts to Pharmaceutical Products;" and "Pharmaceutical Gene Delivery Systems." He is an inventor on more than 20 international patents for advanced drug delivery systems, drug/gene targeting and formulation, and he is the recipient of several awards. For the past two years, he has served as the Chair of the AAPS Focus Group on Nucleic Acid-based Therapeutics. Dr. Rolland is a member of several scientific societies, including the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the American Controlled Release Society and the American Society of Gene Therapy.

About AAPS

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists is a professional, scientific organization of 13,500 members employed in academia, industry, government, and other research institutes worldwide. Founded in 1986, AAPS provides a dynamic international forum for the exchange of knowledge among scientists to serve the public and enhance their contributions to health. AAPS offers timely scientific programs, ongoing education, information resources, opportunities for networking, and professional development.

About Vical

Vical researches and develops biopharmaceutical products based on its patented DNA delivery technologies for the prevention and treatment of serious or life-threatening diseases. Potential applications of the company's DNA delivery technology include DNA vaccines for infectious diseases or cancer, in which the expressed protein is an immunogen; cancer immunotherapeutics, in which the expressed protein is an immune system stimulant; and cardiovascular therapies, in which the expressed protein is an angiogenic growth factor. The company is developing certain infectious disease vaccines and cancer therapeutics internally. In addition, the company collaborates with major pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies that give it access to complementary technologies or greater resources. These strategic partnerships provide the company with mutually beneficial opportunities to expand its product pipeline and address significant unmet medical needs. Additional information on Vical is available at www.vical.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Forward-looking statements include statements about the company's focus, collaborative partners, product candidates, and developmental status. Risks and uncertainties include whether any product candidates will be shown to be safe and efficacious in clinical trials, the timing of clinical trials, whether Vical or its collaborative partners will seek or gain approval to market any product candidates, the dependence of the company on its collaborative partners, and additional risks set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements represent the company's judgment as of the date of this release. The company disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

    Contact:  Alan R. Engbring
              (858) 646-1127
              Website:  www.vical.com

SOURCE  Vical Incorporated
    -0-                           11/17/2008
    /CONTACT:  Alan R. Engbring of Vical Incorporated, +1-858-646-1127/
    /Web Site:  http://www.vical.com /
    (VICL)

CO:  Vical Incorporated; American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists
     ~~AAPS
ST:  Georgia
IN:  BIO MTC HEA IDC
SU:  PER