Napo Pharmaceuticals

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Appointment of Thomas Van Dyck as Non-Executive Director

South San Francisco, California, June 12, 2007 - South San Francisco, California, 12 June, 2007 - Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (LSE: NAPL), which focuses on the development and commercialisation of proprietary pharmaceuticals for the global marketplace in collaboration with local partners, is pleased to announce that employer approval for the appointment of Mr. Thomas Van Dyck has been received and his appointment to the Board of Napo as a Non-Executive Director has been confirmed with immediate effect.

Thomas Van Dyck specialises 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. His passion and quantitative work towards not compromising performance while applying qualitative screens to investment portfolios helped CALPERS in adapting Green Wave in 2004. In 2005 to 2006, he led Piper Jaffray to create the first Clean Tech Private Equity fund of fund in the country. 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.

The Company confirms that there is no additional information which is required to be disclosed under Rule 9.6.13 of the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority.

Lisa A. Conte, CEO of Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. commented: "I am delighted to welcome Tom to the board. Tom has been a significant contributor to the mission of the Company to demonstrate greater financial return by addressing global health and environmental concerns in the course of implementing our drug development business objectives. He is well known to several of our investors and brings broad capital markets experience."

Commenting on this announcement, Mr. Van Dyck, said: "I am pleased to be part of Napo's triple bottom line agenda, which includes superior financial, environmental, and global health performance. Napo's development programs are a good fit with the agenda of the socially responsible investor community."

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
(44) + 020 7466 5000
Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson

Noonan Russo
(001) + 858 546 4810
David Schull

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.

About Crofelemer

Crofelemer, a proprietary patented agent, is extracted from Croton lechleri, a medicinal plant which can be sustainably harvested from several countries in South America. Crofelemer is in various stages of clinical development for four distinct product indications, one in Phase 3, two in Phase 2 and one in Phase 1.

Crofelemer has been tested in trials involving approximately 1500 patients in double-blind placebo-controlled, mostly published trials of AIDS diarrhoea, diarrhoea-predominant IBS, and acute infectious diarrhoea. It is generally well tolerated and have shown significant anti-diarrhoeal activities and improvement in gastrointestinal symptoms. Crofelemer produces several effects when administered orally providing for activity in several disease indications. Crofelemer's anti-secretory mechanism reduces excess fluid secreted into the gastro-intestinal tract, while its anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity may provide the rationale for its significant benefit in abdominal pain. Crofelemer acts locally in the intestines, with limited systemic exposure.