EXHIBIT 1

[LOGO]                        Visible Genetics Inc.
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                             For Immediate Release

Contacts:
David Sassoon (212) 527-7453                        Bruno Maruzzo (416) 813-3271
Rowland-Wang Healthcare                             Visible Genetics Inc.
Roanne Argyle (416) 968-7311
Argyle Rowland Worldwide

        VISIBLE GENETICS HALTS CONTROL ARM IN VIRADAPT GENOTYPING TRIAL

                - U.S. Based Prospective Genotyping Trial, GART,
                      Corroborates VIRADAPT Study Results -

TORONTO, CANADA (January 27, 1999) Visible Genetics Inc. (VGI, Nasdaq: VGIN)
announced today that on the recommendation of the Data Safety Management
Committee for the VIRADAPT study, the control arm of the study has been stopped
on ethical grounds. All patients will now be treated using genotyping
information to direct their drug treatment. This decision was made as a result
of the publication of a U.S.-based study conducted by the Community Programs for
Clinical Research on AIDS (CPCRA), "A Pilot Study of the Short-Term Effects of
Antiretroviral Management Based on Plasma Genotypic Antiretroviral Resistance
Testing (GART) in Patients Failing Antiretroviral Therapy", by J.D. Baxter, D.L.
Mayers, D.N. Wentworth, J.D. Neaton, T.C. Merigan and the CPCRA 046 Study Team.

The GART data will be formally presented at the late breaker session on Thursday
February 4th 1999 at the 6th Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic
Infections being held in Chicago. Study results show that patients treated in
the GART genotyping arm of the study had a 1.1 log decrease in the viral load
with 50% of the patients having undetectable viral loads at 8 weeks, versus a
0.65 log decrease and 23% with undetectable viral load, for the non-genotyping
arm. These results are consistent with VGI's recently reported VIRADAPT results.

"It would be unethical to continue to treat patients in the control arm of the
trial using the current standard of care in light of this new information", said
John Stevens, Chairman and CEO of VGI. "Both the


VIRADAPT and GART trials have demonstrated that HIV genotyping has the potential
to be a useful tool in the treatment of HIV positive patients. Further work and
confirmation is obviously required, but these corroborative results are
extremely encouraging."

Research has shown that HIV is a highly polymorphic (genetically variable) virus
that constantly mutates within infected individuals. The virus is so variable
that it is unlikely that HIV viruses isolated from any two patients will have
the same DNA sequence. Because of this rapid mutation rate, drugs used to treat
the HIV infection, while often effective for a period of time, eventually lose
efficacy to newly mutated drug resistant HIV. Development of such resistant HIV
strains frequently leads to the return of high virus levels in the patient. The
GART and VIRADAPT studies are intended to address whether by genotyping HIV, it
is possible to treat individual patients by selecting drugs to which the virus
has not yet developed resistance, and thus maintain the virus at low levels.

The VIRADAPT study, sponsored by Visible Genetics, is a randomized, controlled
clinical trial carried out at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice, under
the direction of Professor Pierre Dellamonica, an infectious disease specialist.
Three sites and five physicians are involved in the trial which monitors 108
total patients. All patients participating in the study have reached the
six-month point. The results were first reported at the 4th International
Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection, Glasgow, Scotland in November 1998
and are almost identical to the GART study results.

Visible Genetics Inc. manufactures and markets high performance automated DNA
sequencing systems and complete kits for the analysis of genes linked to
disease. The Company's OpenGene(TM) system employs proprietary stratified DNA
testing and single-tube, single-step sequencing methods to significantly reduce
the time and cost involved in identifying clinically relevant genetic
information. VGI is a leader in the emerging field of pharmacogenomics, which
will use genetic information in the identification and analysis of genes in
order to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs.

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