Novexel Discontinues Development of NXL 101

Paris, France, 30 June 2008 -- Novexel, a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel antibacterials designed to overcome the significant global problem of bacterial resistance, announces that it has decided to discontinue the development of NXL101. NXL101 is an i.v. / oral antibiotic targeting Gram positive bacteria such as MRSA in hospitals. This decision was taken due to the QT interval prolongation seen in healthy subjects during NXL101’s early clinical development.

Iain Buchanan, Novexel’s CEO commenting on today’s announcement said, “Today’s announcement is obviously a disappointment yet underlines the ability of the Company to take the pragmatic decisions required to manage its product development portfolio. The QT prolongation that we have seen with NXL 101 has led us to conclude that we will not be able to develop this compound with an appropriate safety margin at the required multiple of the therapeutic dose.

The Company is, however, in the fortunate position of being able to re-direct its clinical development efforts to other drug candidates in the Novexel portfolio. Further updates on these products will be provided in the coming months.”

For further information, please contact:

Novexel Iain Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer Tel: +33 1 5714 0777

Citigate Dewe Rogerson David Dible or Sylvie Berrebi Tel: +44 (0)20 7282 1050 E-mail : sylvie.berrebi@citigatedr.co.uk

About Novexel

Novexel is a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel anti-bacterials designed to overcome the significant global problem of bacterial resistance. The ever increasing resistance to marketed antibiotics has led to a clear need for novel drugs that are active against multi-drug resistant bacteria. Novexel’s products are targeting the global hospital antibiotic market, which was worth an estimated US$15bn in 2007.

Novexel currently has two novel antibacterial programmes in clinical development. These are the oral antibiotic, NXL103, for hospital and community infections and the injectable combination of the beta-lactamase inhibitor, NXL 104 with the cephalosporin antibiotic ceftazidime for serious hospital infections. Novexel has three further programmes in preclinical development, NXL104 in combination with ceftaroline, which is being developed by its partner Forest Labs for North America, NXL105, a novel anti-Psuedomonal antibiotic, and NXL201, a novel echinocandin antifungal agent.

Novexel was created in December 2004 as an independent spin-out of the sanofi-aventis anti-infectives unit. Novexel has a team of 46 employees with significant experience in anti-infective research and development, who are located in Paris, France and Philadelphia, USA.