SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 09/04/08 -- Theravance, Inc. (NASDAQ: THRX) today reported that an equity award was made to one new employee. Pursuant to Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4350(i)(1)(A)(iv), the equity award was 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, this grant was 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. One employee was granted an option to purchase 2,500 shares of the Company's common stock, which option vests over four years and expires in 10 years assuming continued employment. No officers received any award under this plan. The exercise price for the option shares granted is $13.26, 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.

This press release contains certain "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding, among other things, statements relating to goals, plans, objectives and future events. Theravance intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 21E of the Exchange Act and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Examples of such statements include statements relating to the enabling capabilities of Theravance's approach to drug discovery and its proprietary insights. These statements are based on the current estimates and assumptions of the management of Theravance as of the date of this press release and are subject to risks, uncertainties, changes in circumstances, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results of Theravance to be materially different from those reflected in its forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements include, among others, the potential that results of clinical or preclinical studies indicate product candidates are unsafe or ineffective, and delays or failure to achieve regulatory approvals. These and other risks are described in greater detail under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in Theravance's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 7, 2008 and the risks discussed in our other periodic filings with the SEC. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Theravance assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements.