Corautus Genetics Announces Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock

27 February 2006

Corautus Genetics Inc. (Nasdaq: VEGF) announced today that it has filed a preliminary prospectus supplement relating to an offering of 6,500,000 shares of its common stock pursuant to a Form S-3 shelf registration statement filed last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Corautus will also grant the underwriters in the offering an option to purchase up to 975,000 additional shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. All of the shares are being sold by Corautus.

Lazard Capital Markets LLC will act as the lead manager and sole book- runner for the offering. Jefferies & Company, Inc. will act as co-lead manager. A preliminary prospectus supplement has been filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Any offer of shares of Corautus' common stock will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement relating to the offering may be obtained by contacting Lazard Capital Markets LLC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10020 or (212) 632-6000. This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Corautus Genetics Inc.

Corautus Genetics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of innovative gene therapy products for the treatment of cardiovascular and peripheral vascular disease. Corautus is currently developing and testing gene therapy product candidates using the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-2 (VEGF-2) gene to promote therapeutic angiogenesis in ischemic muscle. For more information, please visit http://www.corautus.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and performances to differ materially from those referred to in such statements. These risks include statements which address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, such as projections about our ongoing clinical trial, including its cost, projections about our future results of operations or our financial condition, benefits of achieving Fast Track designation, benefits from the alliance with Boston Scientific, benefits from manufacturing agreements, research, development and commercialization of our product candidates, the potential of additional product candidates or indications, sufficient and timely enrollment of suitable patients in our clinical trial, whether early-stage clinical trial results are any indication of results in subsequent clinical trials, anticipated trends in our business, manufacture of sufficient and acceptable quantities of our proposed products, approval of our product candidates, meeting additional capital requirements, and other risks that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks are discussed in Corautus Genetics Inc.'s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in Corautus' Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2004 filed on March 22, 2005, which are incorporated by reference into this press release. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to Corautus on the date hereof, and Corautus assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements.

CONTACTS:

Michael K. Steele

Corautus Genetics Inc.

404-526-6212

msteele@corautus.com

Kim Golodetz

Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates

212-838-3777

kgolodetz@lhai.com

Bruce Voss

Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates

310-691-7100