U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                              Washington, DC 20549

                                     FORM 4

                  STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP

    Filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
       Section 17(a) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 or
               Section 30(f) of the Investment Company Act of 1940

|_|   Check this box if no longer subject to Section 16. Form 4 or Form 5
      obligations may continue. See Instruction 1(b).

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1. Name and Address of Reporting Person*

   Capetola,             Robert                    J.
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   (Last)               (First)                 (Middle)

   6097 Hidden Valley Drive
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                                    (Street)

   Doylestown, Pennsylvania    18901
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   (City)               (State)                 (Zip)

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2. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol

   Discovery Laboratories, Inc. (Discovery)

   DSCO
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3. IRS Identification Number of Reporting Person, if an Entity (Voluntary)


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4. Statement for Month/Year

   October 2001
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5. If Amendment, Date of Original (Month/Year)


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6. Relationship of Reporting Person to Issuer
   (Check all applicable)

   |X|   Director                             |_|   10% Owner
   |X|   Officer (give title below)           |_|   Other (specify below)

                         Chief Executive Officer
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7. Individual or Joint/Group Filing (Check Applicable Line)

   |X|  Form filed by one Reporting Person
   |_|  Form filed by more than one Reporting Person

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* If the Form is filed by more than one Reporting Person, see Instruction
  4(b)(v).

================================================================================ Table I -- Non-Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned ================================================================================ 6. 4. 5. Owner- Securities Acquired (A) or Amount of ship 3. Disposed of (D) Securities Form: 7. Transaction (Instr. 3, 4 and 5) Beneficially Direct Nature of 2. Code ---------------------------- Owned at End (D) or Indirect 1. Transaction (Instr. 8) (A) of Month Indirect Beneficial Title of Security Date ------------ Amount or Price (Instr. 3 (I) Ownership (Instr. 3) (mm/dd/yy) Code V (D) and 4) (Instr.4) (Instr. 4) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Common Stock 10/12/01 P 2,000 A $2.57 495,746 (1) D ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Common Stock 09/10/01 G V 1,300 D $2.63 495,746 (1) D ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Common Stock 05/08/01 G V 16,000 D $4.12 495,746 (1) D ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ==================================================================================================================================== (1) Excludes 793,863 shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise of employee stock options previously listed in Table 1 as beneficially owned by Dr. Capetola which are not required to be listed in Table 1 pursuant to Instruction 4(c)(i). Reminder: Report on a separate line for each class of securities beneficially owned directly or indirectly. Page 1 of 2

FORM 4 (continued) Table II -- Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned (e.g., puts, calls, warrants, options, convertible securities) ================================================================================ 9. 10. Number Owner- of ship 2. Deriv- Form of Conver- 5. 7. ative Deriv- 11. sion Number of Title and Amount Secur- ative Nature or Derivative 6. of Underlying 8. ities Secur- of Exer- 4. Securities Date Securities Price Bene- ity: In- cise 3. Trans- Acquired (A) Exercisable and (Instr. 3 and 4) of ficially Direct direct Price Trans- action or Disposed Expiration Date ---------------- Deriv- Owned (D) or Bene- 1. of action Code of(D) (Month/Day/Year) Amount ative at End In- ficial Title of Deriv- Date (Instr. (Instr. 3, ---------------- or Secur- of direct Owner- Derivative ative (Month/ 8) 4 and 5) Date Expira- Number ity Month (I) ship Security Secur- Day/ ------ ------------ Exer- tion of (Instr. (Instr. (Instr. (Instr. (Instr. 3) ity Year) Code V (A) (D) cisable Date Title Shares 5) 4) 5) 5) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Employee Stock $2.10 09/21/01 A V A 09/21/01(1) 09/20/11 Common 125,000 $2.10 793,863 D Option Stock ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ==================================================================================================================================== Explanation of Responses: (1) This employee stock option is immediately exercisable. ** Intentional misstatements or omissions of facts constitute Federal Criminal Violations. See 18 U.S.C. 1001 and 15 U.S.C. 78ff(a). /s/ Robert J.Capetola November 7, 2001 --------------------------------------------- ----------------------- ** Signature of Reporting Person Date Note: File three copies of this Form, one of which must be manually signed. If space provided is insufficient, see Instruction 6 for procedure. Page 2 of 2