COVANCE STRENGTHENS DRUG RISK MINIMIZATION SERVICES TEAM LEADERSHIP

Princeton, NJ, January 5, 2006 — Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD) today announced that Edgar Adams, Sc.D has joined the Company as Executive Director of Epidemiology, with responsibility for providing scientific and technical leadership across Covance's epidemiology, clinical outcomes, and risk management services. With increasing regulatory and public scrutiny on biopharmaceutical product safety, this move strengthens the leadership team for Covance's portfolio of services to help biopharmaceutical firms proactively address signal detection, risk minimization and pharmacovigilance from the earliest stages of development, through to patient access to approved products.

"The rising concern over adverse events is prompting biopharmaceutical companies to become far more proactive in monitoring their risk-benefit profiles, both prior to, and after, approval," said Dr. Larry Meinert, Covance's Senior Vice President, Medical and Scientific Affairs.

"Working with the scientific and operations teams in our early, late-stage and commercialization service offerings, Dr. Adams and his team will help Covance clients build risk management into the core of their development processes."

"Biopharmaceutical risk management cannot be an afterthought — it must be part of the drug development process from the earliest stages," said Dr. Adams. "From preclinical studies, through first-in-human, to pivotal clinical trials and beyond, our clients are looking to design and execute integrated plans that help minimize product risk and maximize patient safety. Covance is one of the few CROs with the breadth and depth of services that can support them throughout the process."

Dr. Adams spent 23 years as a Commissioned Officer in the United States Public Health Service, eventually as Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, where he was responsible for the U.S. national Drug Abuse Surveillance effort, including the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, and the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN). Prior to joining Covance, Dr. Adams consulted to the biopharmaceutical industry on the design, assessment and implementation of risk minimization action plans, postmarketing surveillance, drug scheduling, both nationally and internationally, and drug abuse epidemiology. Prior to starting his consulting practice, Dr. Adams established the Clinical Research and Risk Management Program at the Gordon S. Black Corporation (now Harris Interactive).

Dr. Adams earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Fordham University, a Master of Science in Pharmacology from Purdue and a doctorate (Sc.D.) in Health Policy and Management from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

About Covance
Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with annual revenues greater than $1 billion, global operations in 18 countries, and more than 7,000 employees worldwide. Information on Covance's products and services, recent press releases, and SEC filings can be obtained through the Covance website.

Statements contained in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such forward-looking statements including the statements contained herein regarding anticipated trends in the Company's business are based largely on management's expectations and are subject to an qualified by risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, competitive factors, outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical industry, levels of industry research and development spending, the Company's ability to continue to attract and retain qualified personnel, the fixed price nature of contracts or the loss of large contracts, and other factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Covance, the Covance logo and StudyTracker are registered service marks and "Covance Virtual Central Laboratory" is a service mark of Covance in the United States and other countries.