Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. named among top 15 Biotech Companies of 2004 by FierceBiotech

LEXINGTON, MA - July 28, 2004 - Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp., an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing a diverse pipeline of first-in-class small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of major immune disorders and cancer, announced today that it has been selected as one of the "Fierce 15" biotechnology companies of 2004 by FierceBiotech, an internationally recognized email newsletter for the biotech industry. Synta Pharmaceuticals was selected from more than 1,000 privately held biotech and medical device companies for their vision, management expertise, breadth and depth of clinical pipeline, and commercial potential to address major unmet market opportunities.

Safi Bahcall, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Synta, stated, "We very much appreciate the recognition by FierceBiotech for what has been a very positive year for Synta. We advanced our multi-product pipeline of small-molecule drugs into a robust development program targeting some of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world - solid-tumor cancers and inflammatory diseases - and have been encouraged by the data to date. We have a management team with deep expertise across every major pharmaceutical function from biology to chemistry, formulation, manufacturing, clinical development, and intellectual property. And we have consistently delivered on both quality of science and speed of execution. I wish to thank both FierceBiotech, for this recognition, and our hard-working and talented employees for their commitment and dedication to our mission of improving the lives of patients."

James Barsoum, Ph.D., Vice President, Biology, added, "Synta's novel drug discovery platform is based on tight integration and rapid cycle times among its chemistry, biology and pharmaceutical development groups. Early in-vivo testing and a rapid optimization process allows for a high productivity of promising leads, improved profiles for our compounds, and, in certain cases, the discovery of novel pathways or mechanisms of action with the potential to define entirely new categories of treatment."

About FierceBiotech

FierceBiotech is a daily email briefing read by more than 31,000 executives in more than 100 countries. Since its inception in October 2001, FierceBiotech has been recognized as a must-read source of news and intelligence for the biotech industry.

The Fiercest 15 celebrates the spirit of being "fierce" - daring to be innovative and forward-looking, even in a difficult market environment. The Fiercest 15 list of companies is available in today's issue of FierceBiotech as well as on its web site at www.fiercebiotech.com.

About Synta

Synta Pharmaceuticals is an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing breakthrough products for severe medical conditions. Synta has a diverse pipeline of small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and immune disorders, with its two most advanced products in Phase II clinical development. Synta developed as a buyout of the U.S. subsidiary of a large Japanese pharmaceutical company. As a result, Synta has an experienced and successful drug discovery team that has worked together for over ten years. All clinical candidates were developed by this team using Synta's chemistry-driven drug discovery platform. Synta fully owns all rights for all of its products. For more information, please see www.syntapharma.com.