Arpida to Discuss Strategy With Shareholders

REINACH, Switzerland, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arpida Ltd. (SIX: ARPN) will today discuss potential strategic scenarios with its shareholders during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) which starts at 10am CET in Reinach, Switzerland.

After the negative FDA opinion regarding intravenous iclaprim, Arpida has initiated a thorough analysis with the aim to design a roadmap towards approval. The company was supported by international experts in this field.

As Arpida lacks both the time and the money to complete this path, a search for funding or other strategic options took place in parallel. The search for fresh funds did not yield any results as access to credit lines or equity funding is not available.

During the last months, Arpida, supported by external advisors, has explored all other strategic scenarios, including 'reverse mergers', takeovers, asset sales as well as liquidation as a last resort.

Board and Management currently pursue business development contacts with 72 companies, both inside Switzerland and abroad. Of these, Arpida focuses on 5 that have advanced into negotiations which are currently ongoing. At today's meeting no vote is planned on this item, as no concrete proposal is available at this time. If and when a major strategic proposal is made, shareholders will obviously be duly involved.

This press release contains specific forward-looking statements, e.g. statements including terms like believe, assume, expect or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and those explicitly or implicitly presumed in these statements. Against the background of these uncertainties readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements or to adapt them to future events or developments.

CONTACT: Arpida contacts: Dr Jurgen Raths, President and CEO,Tel:
+41-61-417-96-60; Harry Welten, MBA, CFO and Senior Vice President,Tel:
+41-61-417-96-65; Paul Verbraeken, Head of Corporate Communications,Tel:
+41-61-417-96-83.