Napo Pharmaceuticals

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Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announces board changes

South San Francisco, California, April 23, 2007 - Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (the "Company") announces the resignations of Mr. Nezam Tooloee, Dr. Seth Berkley, Mr. Ian Kent, and Mr. Mustapha Leavenworth Bakali from the board of directors, and the election of Sir William Young, Dr. Gregory Stock and Mr. Thomas Van Dyck* (see bios below), effective Friday, April 20, 2007. Continuing representation on the board of the Company are Mr. Jack Van Hulst, a forty year pharmaceutical industry veteran, and Ms. Lisa Conte, the Company's Chief Executive Officer.

Shareholders are referred to the announcement made by Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (the "Company") on April 19, 2007 in which the Company advised that an Extraordinary General Meeting (the "EGM") of the Company had been requisitioned by the Chief Executive Officer to effect board changes. Ms. Conte thanks the shareholders for their overwhelming support, in which shareholders (including shareholders in the United States and the United Kingdom) holding ~60% of the beneficial interest in the Company's outstanding stock signed a "Written Consent in Lieu of a Meeting of Stockholders" (the "Written Consent") in favour or such changes in accordance with Section 228 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (being the State in which the Company is incorporated). The EGM is no longer necessary.

Profiles of newly elected Directors:

Sir William Neil Young is an experienced 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 and member of the board of directors of 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 Medicine, 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 Parkinson'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 Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He was also a fellow at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princetons 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 labeling 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 aat the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

*subject to approval from employer

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.