Exhibit 99.1

                 [LETTERHEAD OF BIOCRYST PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.]

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
2190 Parkway Lake Drive
Birmingham, AL 35244
205-444-4600 205-444-4640 Fax
www.biocryst.com

Contacts:
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc.                Euro RSCG Life NRP
Michael A. Darwin                             Sharon Weinstein (Investors)
Chief Financial Officer                       (212) 845-4271
(205) 444-4600                                Wendy Lau (Media)
                                              (212) 845-4272

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

   BIOCRYST TO RAISE APPROXIMATELY $21.4 MILLION THROUGH SALE OF COMMON STOCK

Birmingham, Alabama - February 17, 2004 - BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq
NM: BCRX) today announced that it has priced a registered direct offering for
the sale of 3,571,667 shares of its common stock at a price of $6.00 per share
to institutional investors. Leerink, Swann & Company served as placement agent
for the transaction. The company expects this transaction to close on Tuesday,
February 17, 2004.

The offered shares are registered pursuant to BioCryst's $60 million shelf
registration statement that was declared effective by the Securities and
Exchange Commission on January 5, 2004.

In connection with the transaction, BioCryst granted investors affiliated with
OrbiMed Advisors the right to appoint a member to its board of directors
effective as of the closing of the offering.

A Registration Statement relating to these securities has been filed with and
declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release
shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor
shall there be the sale of the securities in any state in which such offer,
solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification
under the securities laws of any such state. Copies of the prospectus relating
to the offering may be obtained from Leerink Swann & Company at 590 Madison
Avenue, 31st Floor, New York, New York 10022.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. designs, optimizes and develops novel drugs that
block key enzymes essential for cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases,
and viral infections. BioCryst integrates the necessary disciplines of biology,
crystallography, medicinal chemistry and computer modeling to effectively use
structure-based drug design to discover and develop small molecule
pharmaceuticals. Enrollment in four Phase I trials for BioCryst's lead product
candidate, BCX-1777, is underway at nine U.S. cancer centers for patients with
T-cell malignancies, hematologic malignancies, and other refractory cancers.
BioCryst has other new enzyme targets in drug discovery including tissue
factor/factor VIIa and hepatitis C polymerase. For more information about
BioCryst, please visit the company's web site at www.biocryst.com.

These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be
materially different from any future results, performances or achievements
expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements reflect
our current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and
subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, you should not
place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Some of the factors
that could affect the forward-looking statements contained herein include that
we may not be able to enroll the required number of subjects in clinical trials
of BCX-1777, that BCX-1777 or any of our other product candidates may not
receive required regulatory clearances from the FDA, that we may not be able to
initiate Phase II clinical trials of BCX-1777 in 2004 or at all, that we may not
be able to continue future development of BCX-1777 or any of our other current
development programs including tissue factor/factor VIIa and hepatitis C
polymerase, that BCX-1777 or our other development programs may never result in
future product, license or royalty payments being received by BioCryst, that
BioCryst may not have sufficient cash to continue funding the development,
manufacturing, marketing or distribution of its products and that additional
funding, if necessary, may not be available at all or on terms acceptable to
BioCryst. Please refer to the documents BioCryst files periodically with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically BioCryst's most recent Annual
Report on Form 10-K, its Form S-3 Registration Statement filed on December 16,
2003 and its Current Report on Form 8-K filed on February 4, 2004, which
identify important factors that could cause the actual results to differ
materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking
statements.

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