SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/05/09 -- 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 3,000 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 $13.70, 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.