Japanese, Finnish and US Investors Led by Franklin Templeton and American Express Financial Advisors

South San Francisco, CA - September 28, 2000 - FibroGen, Inc., announced today the completion of a $56.5 million private placement of convertible preferred stock. Investors, including a syndicate representing Finland, Japan, Taiwan, and current FibroGen stockholders, were led in the financing by Franklin Templeton Investments and American Express Financial Advisors (AMEX).

"The success of this financing allows FibroGen the opportunity to aggressively expand activities, manufacturing scale up and commercialization of our synthetic collagens and gelatin and to accelerate the research and development efforts aimed toward scarring, fibrosis, and fibroproliferative cancers," said FibroGen's Chief Executive Officer, Thomas B. Neff. "We are extremely pleased with the caliber and breadth of our new investor group and in the strong position we have secured now with US, Asian, and Finnish financial institutions."

The Investors

Franklin Templeton led the investment through participation by two of its funds, the Biotechnology Discovery Fund and the California Growth Stock Fund. AMEX invested through its Aggressive Growth Fund and its Life Series Fund. The Finnish group was lead by BioFund Ventures of Helsinki, Finland. Life Science Venture Fund of Tokyo, Japan led the Japanese/Taiwanese investors including Hotung Ventures, IBJ Investments, Ltd., ORIX, and Asahi Life, as well as several additional institutions. ReqMed Company Limited of Japan will serve as an investor information agent with respect to the Asian investors.

FibroGen's Development Platform

FibroGen, Inc., has leveraged its expertise in extracellular matrix biology by achieving the only commercially viable method known to produce human collagen and human gelatin in recombinant systems. FibroGen will exploit this technology by becoming both a bulk product supplier for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries as well as a developer and commercializer of injectable products, wound management products, and gelatin stabilizers. Additionally, FibroGen has unique therapeutic programs focusing on the development of therapies to treat fibrosis, excessive scarring, tissue regeneration, and fibroproliferative disorders including angiogenesis and squamous cell carcinoma.

Each year over 50 million kilograms of collagen and gelatin are used in pharmaceutical and medical products worldwide. Applications include encapsulation of pharmaceutical products; stabilizers for production and final formulations of drugs, vaccines and biologics; plasma expanders; tissue engineering applications (such as artificial skin, neural tubes and dura matter replacements); bone products (such as grafts and cements); implant coatings; resorbable tissue sealants, vascular sealants, hemostats, and wound dressings; implants for cosmetic augmentation; and incontinence treatments. Current year total sales of fabricated animal-source collagen and gelatin products are estimated at several billion dollars.

FibroGen's proprietary technology permits the production of synthetic human collagen and gelatin that can replace animal-source materials in these applications, alleviating consumer and regulatory concerns with the consumption of tainted animal-source materials. Use of the synthetic version of authentic human collagen avoids the documented health risks associated with the use of animal-source materials that have been reported to regulatory bodies worldwide. Inflammatory, allergenic, and anaphylactic reactions, as well as neurodegenerative diseases, such as new variant Creutzfeld Jacob Disease (nvCJD), caused by transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, have all been reported and linked to exposure to bovine- and porcine-derived products.

FibroGen's recombinant technology creates pure, fully characterized, and completely reproducible materials. Availability of such products has been long-desired by pharmaceutical and medical device companies anxious to eliminate the problems associated with the use of impure mixtures of animal-source molecules, such as unacceptable endotoxin levels and exposure to pathogenic bacteria and viruses.

FibroGen currently has a collaboration with Taisho Pharmaceutical Company of Japan to discover and develop human monoclonal antibody therapeutics for renal fibrosis and chronic transplant rejection. FibroGen also has a collaboration with ZymoGenetics, a unit of Novo Nordisk, directed to the development of fully recombinant hemostats and resorbable tissue sealants utilizing FibroGen's recombinant Type III collagen. Additionally, FibroGen has over 20 active agreements with leading pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers for development or feasibility testing of the Company's recombinant human collagens or gelatin as replacement components for animal-sourced materials within in-market and R&D stage products.

Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN], is a global investment organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. Through its subsidiaries, Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment, shareholder and distribution services to the Franklin, Templeton and Mutual Series funds and institutional accounts, as well as separate account management services. The San Mateo, CA-based company has over 50 years of investment experience and more than $236 billion in assets under management. For more information, please visit www.franklintempleton.com or call 1-800/DIAL BEN.

Customers interested in purchasing FibroGen's products should log-on to FibroGen's website at www.fibrogen.com and select "Reagents." Customers without web access may contact the Company's Reagent Sales Customer Service Department at 1 800-720-7203. FibroGen's current products are intended for laboratory research purposes only and are not to be used in humans.