Quintiles Lowers Earnings Targets, Citing Class of Cardiovascular Products / Project Backlog Remains Strong

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (PROTEXT) - QuintilesTransnational Corp. (Nasdaq: QTRN) today announced that itexpects financial results for its third quarter ended Sept. 30,1999, to come in below analysts' estimates. Based on preliminaryresults received this week for the month of August, and a revisedforecast for September, management estimates that earnings forthe third quarter will be about $0.27 per share. Managementattributes the slower than expected growth to the performance ofits Quintiles Product Development service group, which has beenaffected during the quarter, in part, by the early terminationsof several large-scale ongoing clinical programs involving aspecific class of cardiovascular drugs found not to beefficacious. In addition, the need to more efficiently distributebacklog among therapeutic business units and better matchresources to demand affected performance. The company also has revised its estimates for fourth quarterearnings to about $0.32 per share. Earnings are projected bymanagement to grow approximately 25 percent during the year 2000. "Our anticipated shortfall stems largely from theunprecedented cessation by pharmaceutical companies of clinicalprograms tied to a single class of cardiovascular drugs," saidRachel Selisker, Chief Financial Officer and Executive VicePresident, Finance, Quintiles Transnational Corp. "The earlyterminations of global projects in one therapeutic area made itparticularly difficult to switch resources to other projects.While we are encouraged that our backlog is exceptionally strong,it is not spread evenly across all of our therapeutic businessunits, which sometimes creates a mismatch of demand andresources. We are taking steps to distribute backlog moreefficiently and balance revenues and expenses across the ProductDevelopment service group." Dennis Gillings, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officerof Quintiles Transnational Corp., said: "While we aredisappointed with the anticipated results for this quarter, weremain highly confident of our growth opportunity and the successof our business model across the whole of the company. Inparticular, the performance of our commercialization sector, ourelectronic transactions processing business and ourQUINTERNET(TM) Informatics service group remain on target. Wealso believe that the fundamentals of the product developmentsector remain strong for companies such as ourselves that offerdiversified global services for large-scale projects." Ludo Reynders, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of QuintilesProduct Development, added: "Through our services to thepharmaceutical industry we help bring drugs quickly to market. Wealso help hasten the discovery that some drugs in developmentshould not be brought to market, and because of this, some of ourcontracts terminate early. In August, our cardiovascular groupfaced early termination of several clinical programs largely asthe result of findings -- to which our work contributed --presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology inBarcelona. We remain committed to deploying our resources in thebest way to serve our customers across the entire arena of drugdevelopment." Quintiles Transnational Corp. is the market leader inproviding a full range of integrated product development andcommercialization solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotechnologyand medical device industries. Quintiles also is a leader inelectronic transactions processing and informatics for thehealthcare sector and provides healthcare policy consulting togovernments and other organizations worldwide. Headquartered near Research Triangle Park, North Carolina,Quintiles is a member of the Forbes Platinum 400, the Fortune1000, the Business Week Global 1000 and the Nasdaq-100 Index.With more than 19,000 employees worldwide and offices in 31countries, Quintiles operates through specialized work groupsdedicated to meeting customers' individual needs. Visit theQuintiles Transnational Web site at www.quintiles.com . Information in this press release contains "forward-lookingstatements." These statements involve risks and uncertaintiesthat could cause actual results to differ materially, includingwithout limitation, our ability to efficiently distribute backlogamong therapeutic business units and match demand to resources,actual operating performance, the ability to maintain largeclient contracts or to enter into new contracts, the ability tooperate successfully in new lines of business, the ability of therecently combined businesses to be integrated with Quintiles'current operations, and the actual costs of combining thebusinesses. Additional factors that could cause actual results todiffer materially are discussed in the company's recent filingswith the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but notlimited to its S-3 and S-4 Registration Statements, its AnnualReport on Form 10-K, its Form 8-Ks, and its other periodicreports, including Form 10-Qs. ots Original Text Service:Quintiles Transnational Corp. Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.deContact: Pat Grebe, Media Relations, pgrebe@quintiles.com, orGreg Connors, Investor Relations, invest@quintiles.com, both ofQuintiles Transnational Corp., 919-998-2000 Web site:http://www.quintiles.com

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