New River Pharmaceuticals Inc. Names Dr. Samir Roy Vice President, Formulation And Manufacturing

RADFORD, Va., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- New River Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced today that Samir Roy, Ph.D., has joined the company as Vice President, Formulation and Manufacturing. Dr. Roy will operate from the company's laboratories at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia, and will report to Krish S. Krishnan, New River's Chief Operating Officer.

Krishnan remarked, "Dr. Roy is a strong addition to New River, bringing the requisite skills and experience to enhance our formulation and manufacturing capabilities. Our team looks forward to working with him to advance our research and development program."

Immediately prior to joining New River, Dr. Roy served as the Executive Director of Product Research at Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. In his nearly twenty years in the pharmaceutical industry, he has held positions with Insite Vision Inc., Pfizer-Agouron Pharmaceutical Inc., Roche Pharmaceuticals, and Cygnus Therapeutics Inc. He has authored or co-authored more than 25 journal articles, is listed on ten U.S. patents, and has been involved in the development of a number of FDA product approvals.

Dr. Roy holds a Ph.D. degree from the College of Pharmacy, University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, with a research focus on the oral absorption of amphetamines and its analogs. He conducted a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with a research focus involving narcotic analgesics. He also holds a B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the BHU Institute of Technology, India.

Dr. Roy commented, "I am excited to join the New River team to apply my knowledge and experience to help realize the potential of the company's Carrierwave(TM) technology."

About New River

New River Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company developing novel pharmaceuticals that are generational improvements of widely prescribed drugs in large and growing markets.

For further information on New River, please visit the Company's Web site at http://www.nrpharma.com.

"SAFE HARBOR" STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

This press release contains certain forward-looking information that is intended to be covered by the safe harbor for "forward-looking statements" provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward- looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. Words such as "expect(s)," "feel(s)," "believe(s)," "will," "may," "anticipate(s)" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions; statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, products and services; and statements regarding future performance. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of New River Pharmaceuticals, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include: those discussed and identified in the New River Pharmaceuticals Inc. annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 15, 2006; the timing, progress and likelihood of success of our product research and development programs; the timing and status of our preclinical and clinical development of potential drugs; the likelihood of success of our drug products in clinical trials and the regulatory approval process; our drug products' efficacy, abuse and tamper resistance, resistance to intravenous abuse, onset and duration of drug action, ability to provide protection from overdose, ability to improve patients' symptoms, incidence of adverse events, ability to reduce opioid tolerance, ability to reduce therapeutic variability, and ability to reduce the risks associated with certain therapies; the ability to develop, manufacture, launch and market our drug products; our projections for future revenues, profitability and ability to achieve certain sales targets; our estimates regarding our capital requirements and our needs for additional financing; the likelihood of obtaining favorable scheduling and labeling of our drug products; the likelihood of regulatory approval under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act without having to conduct long and costly trials to generate all of the data which are often required in connection with a traditional new chemical entity; our ability to develop safer and improved versions of widely prescribed drugs using our Carrierwave(TM) technology; our success in developing our own sales and marketing capabilities for our lead product candidate, NRP104; and our ability to obtain favorable patent claims. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof. New River Pharmaceuticals does not undertake any obligation to republish revised forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Readers are also urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures in New River Pharmaceuticals' annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 15, 2006, as well as other public filings with the SEC.

Contacts: The Ruth Group John Quirk (investors) 646-536-7029 jquirk@theruthgroup.com Zack Kubow (media) 646-536-7020 zkubow@theruthgroup.com

New River Pharmaceuticals Inc.

CONTACT: Investors: John Quirk, +1-646-536-7029, jquirk@theruthgroup.com,or Media: Zack Kubow, +1-646-536-7020, zkubow@theruthgroup.com, both of TheRuth Group, for New River Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Web site: http://www.nrpharma.com/