Napo Pharmaceuticals

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Appointment and Removal of Directors and the Calling of an Extraordinary General Meeting

South San Francisco, California, April 19, 2007 - The Chief Executive Officer, Ms Lisa A. Conte on behalf of Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (LSE: NAPL) today announces that she has requisitioned an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company ("EGM") for the purpose of considering the following resolutions so as to modify the board of directors to place the Company in a better position to move forward with its strategic plans:

1. That Sir William Young, Dr. Gregory Stock and Mr. Tom Van Dyck* be appointed as new Directors of the Company with immediate effect;

2. That Mr. Nezam Tooloee, Dr. Seth Berkley and Mr. Ian Kent be removed as directors of the Company with immediate effect.

The decision to call for this meeting was taken after considerable deliberation involving the Chief Executive Officer and senior management. As a result of these discussions, the CEO determined that it would be in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders to make the above board transition immediately. The transition would put in place a slate of directors with the most relevant qualifications and experience to support and govern the Company as it prepares to file for its first New Drug Application.

The resolutions to effect this board transition have the full support of senior management, including Mr. Charles Thompson, Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Finance and Secretary of the company and Dr. Steve King, Vice President of Sustainable Supply and Ethnobotanical Research, two of the longest standing Napo employees. Written support in favour of the resolutions has been received from shareholders holding in excess of 30% of the issued shares in the Company.

Your CEO, Ms. Conte, strongly recommends that shareholders vote in favour of these resolutions.

A circular will be sent to all shareholders in accordance with the requirements of the UK Listing Rules which will contain the notice of EGM, which meeting is expected to be held at 10.00 a.m. on 9 May 2007.

Profiles of proposed Directors:

Sir William Neil Young is a veteran investor and banker who serves on several private and non-profit boards. He is a Senior Advisor to Merchant Bridge, a UK-based private equity house. Previously, he has served as a director of Barclays Private Banking Limited, the head of the Middle East for Coutts and Co., the head of investment for the Saudi International Bank, and several other firms, institutions, and funds in London, Hong Kong and the Middle East. He was a broker on the London Stock Exchange, and served as an officer in The Queens Royal Lancers. He attended Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He lives in Somerset, UK.

Gregory Stock, PhD is CEO & President, Signum Biosciences; and the Director, Program on Medicine, Technology and Society, UCLA. In his role as Director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at UCLA's School of Public Health, Dr. Gregory Stock heads a program that focuses on The Human Genome Project and its spin-offs in reproductive biology, genetic testing, drug development, healthcare policy, and medical practice. Dr. Stock is the CEO and co-founder of Signum Biosciences, which is exploiting recent breakthroughs in cellular signal transduction to develop therapeutics for Alzheimer's and a new class of anti-inflammatories with broad relevance to health and wellness. He is the author of eight books including the bestseller The Book of Questions, which has been translated into 18 languages; and Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future, which won the Kistler Book Award for Science. Dr. Stock is on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Bioethics, the Journal of Evolution and Technology, the International Journal of Bioethics and Rejuvenation Science, and serves on the Advisory Committee on Stem Cells and Reproductive Cloning for the State of California. He holds a PhD in Biophysics from John Hopkins University and an MBA from Harvard, where he was a Baker Scholar. He was also a fellow at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School.

Thomas Van Dyck specializes in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and is a pioneer in the industry. Currently, he is a Senior Vice-President with the SRI Wealth Management Group at RBC Dain Rauscher, one of the leading consulting teams on SRI in the country. Previously, he led the Philanthropic and Social Investment Consulting at Piper Jaffray & Company and was a co-founder of Progressive Asset Management. He has authored numerous articles on SRI and is quoted often in national and local media outlets. Thomas co-founded the As You Sow Foundation in 1992 to promote labelling of toxics in various products under California's Prop 65. In addition to the AYS board, Thomas serves on the Board of Directors of Bioneers and is actively involved with several other organizations including E2, Vote Solar, Rainforest Action Network, Earthrights International, SVN, Engage, and the Ella Baker Center. He earned a B.A. in Political Science from Duke and also completed the Certified Investment Management Analyst Program at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

*subject to approval from RBC Dain 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

Buchanan Communications
020 7466 5000
Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson

Nomura Code Securities Limited
020 7776 1205
Clare Terlouw

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

The FDA has granted fast-track status to CRO-IBS and CRO-HIV.

Crofelemer, a proprietary patented agent, is extracted from Croton lechleri, a medicinal plant which can be sustainably harvested from several countries in South America. 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). Napo also has a plant library of approximately 2,300 medicinal plants from tropical regions, and Napo has entered two screening relationship 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 Trine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of the United States of America; Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited of India; and AsiaPharm Group Ltd. of China. For more information please visit www.napopharma.com.