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                                                                     EXHIBIT 99

Contacts:

Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc.     Noonan/Russo Communications, Inc.
Ralph E. Christoffersen, Ph.D.     (212) 696-4455
CEO and President                     Anthony J. Russo, Ph.D., ext. 202 (media)
(303) 449 - 6500                      Amy Martini, ext. 255 (investors)


      RIBOZYME SIGNS MAJOR TARGET VALIDATION AND THERAPEUTIC DEVELOPMENT
                        DEAL WITH SCHERING AG, GERMANY

         Boulder, Colorado; April 14, 1997 - Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(RPI) (NASDAQ:RZYM) today announced that they have signed a major research
collaboration with Schering AG, Germany, focusing on the use of ribozymes for
therapeutic target validation, as well as the development of ribozymes as
therapeutic agents.

The collaboration will utilize the special selectivity of ribozymes to validate
new molecular therapeutic targets, and to discover new therapeutic agents based
on those targets. RPI will provide its expertise in ribozyme design, synthesis
and delivery, and Berlex Laboratories, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Schering AG,
Germany, will provide candidate targets, cell culture screens, animal models
and development and commercialization expertise to the collaboration. It is
anticipated that hundreds of potential targets will be examined over a five
year period, and Berlex will have options to commercialize products from
validated targets.

Schering AG, Germany will make an equity investment of up to $5 million over
the next year and will separately provide loans of up to $2 million for each of
the next five years. These loans are convertible into equity at the option of
Schering AG, Germany under certain circumstances. In addition, Schering AG,
Germany will make research payments of $2 million a year for the next five
years and RPI may earn success fees and product development milestones, and
will manufacture synthetic ribozyme products and receive royalties on both
ribozyme and non-ribozyme products. All such payments are subject to certain
restrictions, including receipt of certain third party consents and the
termination of the research collaboration at Schering AG, Germany's option upon
one year's notice. Under certain circumstances, total payments to RPI during
the collaboration and prior to product sales could exceed $60 million over the
term of the collaboration.

"This is RPI's second partnership in the area of target validation, and is
consistent with RPI's strategy to offer ribozyme target validation screening
capabilities to multiple partners," said Dr. Ralph Christoffersen, President
and CEO of RPI. "We believe that our ribozyme target validation technology goes
beyond determination of biological function of genes, and forms a natural and
significant extension of genome sequencing efforts. Target validation and the
development of ribozyme-based therapeutics against these targets are an
important part of RPI's strategy for ribozyme commercialization, and it is a
real pleasure for RPI to initiate this collaboration with Schering AG, Germany,
who brings significant 


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expertise, reagents and resources to the collaboration. We look forward to the
validation of many new therapeutic targets and creation of new products."

RPI is a public company that was founded to capitalize on the broad potential
of ribozymes for use as human therapeutics and in other areas, including the
identification of gene function and therapeutic target validation. Ribozymes
are a form of RNA that have the ability to selectively inhibit protein
production. RPI has also entered into collaborations with Chiron Corporation
and the Parke-Davis Division of the Warner Lambert Company to develop ribozyme
products for specific therapeutic targets in human health, a second
collaboration with Chiron in the gene function/target validation area, with
DowElanco for certain agricultural applications, with Pharmacia Biotech AB on
the production-scale synthesis of RNA and chimeric oligonucleotides, with Alza
Corporation on ribozyme delivery, with Protogene laboratories to develop
automated machines for high throughput non-DNA nucleic acid synthesis, and with
IntelliGene Corporation for development of ribozyme-based diagnostics.


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http://www.noonanrusso.com