Affymax, Inc. (Nasdaq: AFFY) today announced the promotion of Cynthia Smith to vice president, market access and commercial development. Ms. Smith, who has 15 years of experience in healthcare market access strategies, joined Affymax in October 2008 as executive director, public policy, payer strategy, and operations.

"Cynthia has made significant contributions to Affymax over the last three years, helping to build and provide leadership to Affymax’s commercial organization, particularly as it relates to reimbursement and payer strategy," said Jeffrey Knapp, chief commercial officer of Affymax. "She has been instrumental in building relationships with key government and advocacy organizations. These relationships, together with her knowledge and expertise in market access strategies will be invaluable to our success as we prepare for the potential approval and commercialization of peginesatide, an investigational drug under FDA review for the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease patients on dialysis."

Prior to joining Affymax, Ms. Smith held various positions at Merck & Co., Inc., including executive director, Medicare and healthcare systems strategy. In that role, she was responsible for Medicare Part D customer strategy and for innovative healthcare delivery and contracting models for Merck’s chronic care product line. She also held management positions in public policy and government affairs. Prior to joining Merck, she was a senior analyst, healthcare policy for the White House Office of Management and Budget. She earned her M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in public policy from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and a B.A. in communications from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

About Affymax, Inc.

Affymax, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing novel drugs to improve the treatment of serious and often life-threatening conditions. For additional information, please visit .

This release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the timing and potential for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the New Drug Application (NDA) for peginesatide and the timing, design and progress of the peginesatide development program. Affymax's actual results may differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties, including risks relating to the FDA approval of the NDA, risks relating to regulatory requirements, including pre-or post-marketing studies and Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), in particular the FDA's interpretation and review of the data in the NDA including issues related to the subgroup analyses in non-dialysis, study design, the completeness of the NDA, including data quality and integrity in our non-inferiority designed trials, the continued safety and efficacy of peginesatide in clinical development, the timing of patient accrual in ongoing and planned clinical studies, research and development efforts, industry and competitive environment, potential delays or additional studies that may be required by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, financing requirements and our ability to access capital and other matters that are described in Affymax's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. Affymax undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in this press release.