Napo Pharmaceuticals

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Admission to CREST

South San Francisco, California, March 13, 2008 -

South San Francisco, California, Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (LSE: NAPL), on the development and commercialisation of proprietary pharmaceuticals for the global marketplace in collaboration with local partners, is pleased to announce that, with effect from 14 March 2008 (the "Effective Date"), Napo shareholders will be able to hold and transfer Napo's common shares within the CREST system as depository interests, as long as certain criteria are satisfied.

The Company, through its registrar, Computershare Investor Services (Channel Islands) Limited (the "Registrar"), has established a depository interest facility to enable qualifying shares (the "Qualifying Shares") to be traded in electronic form within the CREST system under a new ISIN number. On the Effective Date, 14,652,800 Qualifying Shares will be transferred to the new ISIN number. These Qualifying Shares may then be admitted to CREST as depository interests, thereby allowing settlement of transactions in Qualifying Shares within the CREST system.

CREST is a UK and Irish electronic paperless share transfer and settlement system that allows shares and other securities to be held in electronic rather than paper form. Companies other than UK or Irish companies may not settle their shares directly through CREST but are required to settle them by means of a depository interest.

The transferred Qualifying Shares will be represented in CREST by the new ISIN number US6306081075 (LSE: NAPU). The 39,045,969 common shares of the Company which are not Qualifying Shares will continue to be represented by ISIN number USU629901039 (LSE: NAPL).

Common shares will be eligible for settlement through CREST where they were issued at least twelve months ago, whether in an offering conducted outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") or an offering conducted inside the United States pursuant to Regulation D of the Securities Act or otherwise, and where the shareholder is not an affiliate of Napo.

If a shareholder wishes their Qualifying Shares to remain in certificated format, they will be required to provide their current share certificate to the Registrar who will then issue a new certificate under the new ISIN. If a shareholder wishes to transfer their Qualifying Shares into the CREST system, they should contact their broker or custodian in the first instance.

Shareholders should contact the Registrar on +44 (0)1534 825 294 if they require further confirmation of whether their shares are Qualifying Shares and the process for dematerialisation of their Qualifying Shares or for receiving new share certificates.

For more information please contact:

Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Lisa Conte, Chief Executive Officer
(001) + 650 616 1902

Charles Thompson, Chief Financial Officer
(001) + 650 616 1903

About Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Napo Pharmaceuticals Inc., focuses on the development and commercialisation of proprietary pharmaceuticals for the global marketplace in collaboration with local partners. Napo was founded in November 2001, and is based in California, USA with a subsidiary in Mumbai, India. Napo's late-stage proprietary gastro-intestinal compound, crofelemer, is in various stages of clinical development for four distinct product indications, including a late-stage Phase 3 program:

• CRO-HIV for AIDS diarrhea, Phase 3
• CRO-IBS for diarrhea irritable bowel syndrome ("D-IBS"), Phase 2
• CRO-ID for acute infectious diarrhea (including cholera), Phase 2
• CRO-PED for paediatric diarrhea, Phase 1

The FDA has granted fast-track status to CRO-IBS and CRO-HIV. Crofelemer, a proprietary patented first in class agent, is extracted from Croton lechleri, a medicinal plant which can be sustainably harvested from several countries in South America. Napo has exclusive worldwide rights to synthetic compounds in pre-clinical development which act by the same mechanism of action. Napo also plans to develop an early clinical stage product, NP-500, for the treatment of insulin resistant diseases of Type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome (Syndrome X; pre-diabetic syndrome) and has 4 issued patents for anti-cancer agents in pre-clinical development. Napo has a plant library of approximately 2,300 medicinal plants from tropical regions and Napo has entered two screening relationships associated with this collection. Currently, products are based on the chemical and biological diversity derived from plants with medicinal properties, but future products may be in-licensed from other sources. Napo has partnerships with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited of India and AsiaPharm Group Ltd. of China.

For more information please visit www.napopharma.com.