Napo Pharmaceuticals

news

Napo Licenses Patent from University of Iowa Research Foundation for Secretory Diarrhea

South San Francisco, California, 28 February 2008 Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (LSE: NAPL) which focuses on the development and commercialization of proprietary pharmaceuticals for the global marketplace in collaboration with local partners, is pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with the University of Iowa Research Foundation for the non exclusive, royalty free license of United States Patent No. 5,234,922, and titled Use of Sulfonylureas and Other Potassium Channel Regulators to Treat Secretory Diarrhea, and in the inventions described and claimed therein.

Dr. Steven King, Napo's VP of Ethnobotanical Research, Sustainable Supply, and Intellectual Property commented: "We are very happy to add this technology component to our overall IP position on secretory diarrhea. This complements our existing crofelemer IP position as well as our recent license of CFTR technology from UCSF."

For more information please contact:

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

Charles Thompson, Chief Financial Officer
+001 (650) 616-1902

Buchanan Communications
+ 44 (0)20 7466 5000
Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson, Catherine Breen

Nomura Code Securities Limited
+44 (0)20 7776 1205
Clare Terlouw

About Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. focuses on the development and commericalization 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 pediatric diarrhea, 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.