Investors

Vancouver, Canada (June 17, 2008) - Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. is pleased to announce today that it has been awarded the Promising Early Stage Company of the Year Award by BIOTECanada in the Health category for 2008.

“We are delighted to have received this prestigious award, one of BIOTECanada’s four Gold Leaf Awards presented this year,” commented Simon Pimstone, Xenon’s President and CEO. “This honor is important and made even more so by the fact that it represents recognition by our industry peers of both our achievements to date and the potential that Xenon offers.”

“Xenon has made substantial progress in advancing its pipeline of novel compounds acting against targets derived from our clinical genetics approach. In the next 12 months we should have multiple products in clinical development for potential blockbuster markets. Our product pipeline is diverse, and we are excited to be advancing our discoveries into clinical opportunities,” Pimstone added.

About Xenon

Xenon is a privately owned, clinical genetics-based drug discovery and development company engaged in developing small molecule therapies focusing in pain, lipid modification for treating diabetes/obesity, and other diseases, as well as therapies for treating anemia and diseases of iron overload. Xenon has partnerships with Novartis Pharma AG, Roche and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.xenon-pharma.com.

For more information regarding this press release, contact:

Xenon Contact

Dr. Simon Pimstone
President & CEO
Phone: (604) 484-3300
Email: ddunn@xenon-pharma.com
This release contains forward-looking statements that are not based on historical fact. These forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, events or developments to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.