Poniard Pharmaceuticals Announces Intention to Adjourn Annual Meeting of Shareholders to Solicit Additional Proxies for Reverse Stock Split Proposal

Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PARD announced today that it intends to adjourn its annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for Friday, July 8, 2011, until Friday, July 22, 2011, in order to solicit additional proxies to vote in favor of a proposal authorizing the Company's Board of Directors, in its discretion, to effect a reverse stock split in the range of 1-for-15 to 1-for-25. If the proposal is not approved, the Company believes that its common stock will be subject to delisting from the Nasdaq Capital Market, which would adversely impact the liquidity and marketability of its common stock and the completion of Poniard's recently announced merger agreement with ALLOZYNE, Inc., a privately held clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of an autoimmune disease product pipeline and proprietary bioconjugated protein therapeutics.