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                                                                    EXHIBIT 99.1

THURSDAY MARCH 1, 4:00 PM EASTERN TIME

PRESS RELEASE

SOURCE: Aurora Biosciences Corporation

AURORA BIOSCIENCES ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF MERGER WITH PANVERA CORPORATION

SAN DIEGO, March 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Aurora Biosciences Corporation (Nasdaq: ABSC
- - news) today announced that it has completed its merger with PanVera
Corporation effective March 1, 2001. The stockholders of PanVera have approved
the transaction, and all regulatory requirements and other conditions have been
satisfied. Under the merger agreement announced on November 17, 2000, Aurora
will issue up to 1.9 million shares of its common stock in the transaction. The
merger will be accounted for as a pooling-of-interests.

Aurora Biosciences(R) is a drug discovery company that develops and applies
proprietary technologies to accelerate the discovery of new medicines. Aurora's
core technologies include a broad portfolio of proprietary fluorescence assay
technologies, including its GeneBLAzer(TM) and VIPR(TM) technologies, its
functional genomics GenomeScreen(TM) program, its mutant GFP technologies, its
automated master compound store (the AMCS), and its ultra-high throughput
screening system (the UHTSS(R) Platform) and subsystems to miniaturize and
automate drug screening and profiling assays derived from those technologies.
Aurora's Big Biology(TM) Initiative is an internal target-centric drug discovery
program focused on the identification of promising preclinical candidates.
Aurora's technologies have been commercially validated by over 20 major life
sciences companies and research organizations, including American Home Products,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Ceres, Inc., Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Eli Lilly &
Co., Families of SMA, GlaxoSmithKline, Genentech, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Merck
& Co., Inc., NV Organon Laboratories, Pfizer, Inc., Pharmacia and Roche, in the
form of commercialization agreements for discovery collaborations, research
services, licenses or systems. For additional information on Aurora's services
and products, please contact Sales and Marketing via email at
marcom@aurorabio.com.

Established in 1992, PanVera Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aurora
Biosciences Corporation, is an international leader in the development of
products and technologies that allow pharmaceutical companies to select and
develop new drugs more rapidly and cost-effectively. PanVera has produced
hundreds of recombinant proteins for commercial sale focusing on protein
families that are of broad interest from a therapeutic perspective, including
nuclear receptors, protein kinases and drug metabolizing enzymes. In addition to
recombinant proteins, PanVera provides


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CoreHTS(TM) fluorescence polarization-based assays for high-throughput
screening, and contract services in protein manufacturing, assay development and
drug metabolite production. For additional corporate information, visit the
PanVera website at http://www.panvera.com/

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are
"forward-looking" statements which involve a high degree of technological and
competitive risks and uncertainties that exist in Aurora's operations and
business environment. Such statements are only predictions and Aurora's actual
events or results may differ materially from those projected in such
forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to
differences include risks associated with Aurora's new and uncertain technology,
dependence on pharmaceutical and biotechnology collaborations, and the
development or availability of competing systems. These factors and others are
more fully described in Aurora's Registration Statement on Form S-4 filed in
connection with the merger with PanVera Corporation, Aurora's Annual Report on
Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1999, and subsequent filings,
as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For additional corporate
information, visit the Aurora website at http://www.aurorabio.com/.

Aurora Biosciences(R), GeneBLAzer(TM), GenomeScreen(TM), UHTSS(R) and VIPR(TM)
are trademarks of Aurora Biosciences Corporation.

CoreHTS(TM) is a trademark of PanVera Corporation.

SOURCE: Aurora Biosciences Corporation