Press Release

ONCOMETHYLOME SCIENCES ACHIEVES KEY MILESTONE IN SCHERING-PLOUGH COLLABORATION

The Collaboration is on Track

LIEGE (BELGIUM) - August 24, 2006 - OncoMethylome Sciences announced today that it achieved a key milestone in its collaboration with Schering-Plough. Schering-Plough has approved OncoMethylome Sciences’ sub contractor, BRT Laboratories (Maryland, USA) as a clinical trial testing facility. The laboratory can now start to provide testing services for clinical trials that are an important component of the collaboration. This event triggers a milestone payment for OncoMethylome Sciences, who will also qualify to receive ongoing sample processing fees.

Starting immediately, the laboratory will be evaluating the methylation status of the MGMT gene in DNA extracted from brain tumor cells using OncoMethylome Sciences’ patent-protected assay. Making this testing service available is a key milestone in OncoMethylome Sciences’ collaboration with Schering-Plough, which was announced on November 11, 2005. The tumor samples will originate from the multi-center brain cancer clinical trial conducted by the U.S.-based Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), and supported by Schering-Plough.

“We have provided our collaborator with all the requested testing capacity necessary to support their clinical trials. In reaching this milestone our collaboration with Schering-Plough is proceeding as planned” explains Mr. Herman Spolders, Chief Executive Officer of OncoMethylome Sciences. “I am happy that our cornerstone pharmacogenomics test is utilized in a large clinical trial.”

About MGMT Testing

RTOG and EORTC organizations, with the support of Schering-Plough, have organized a clinical trial to analyze whether all glioblastoma brain tumor patients, but especially those with unmethylated MGMT, can benefit from a more intensive temozolomide treatment regimen. This trial is based on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2005; 352: 997-1003) that demonstrated that brain tumor patients with methylated, or silenced, DNA repair enzyme gene MGMT had a more favorable survival response to temozolomide therapy than patients with unmethylated, or expressed, MGMT gene. To assist in this effort, OncoMethylome Sciences is providing testing services to determine the methylation status of the MGMT gene in brain tumor patients enrolled in the trial.

About OncoMethylome Sciences

OncoMethylome Sciences (Euronext Brussels: ONCOB; Euronext Amsterdam: ONCOA) is a molecular diagnostics company developing patent-protected gene methylation tests to assist physicians in effectively detecting and treating cancer. Specifically, the company’s tests are designed to help the physician (i) accurately detect cancer in early stages of cancer development, (ii) predict a patient’s response to drug therapy, and (iii) predict the likelihood of cancer recurrence.

OncoMethylome boasts a broad product development pipeline consisting of nine products and a solid partnering record. The company collaborates with leading international molecular oncology research centers, such as The Johns Hopkins University, and has a number of commercial and collaborative partnerships with Veridex LLC, a Johnson & Johnson company, Schering-Plough Corp., Chemicon International Inc., and EXACT Sciences Corp. OncoMethylome’s products are based on methylation technology invented by Johns Hopkins University (USA).

Established in January 2003, OncoMethylome has offices in Liege and Leuven (Belgium), in
Durham, NC (USA), and in Amsterdam (the Netherlands).

For further information, please contact:

Lucija Turcinov
Tel. +32-479-801-902
Lucija.Turcinov@oncomethylome.com