ALIZÉ PHARMA BROADENS ITS PORTFOLIO WITH THE ACQUISITION OF A RECOMBINANT L-ASPARAGINASE PROGRAM FROM EUSA PHARMA

Ecully, May 6, 2008. The Alizé Pharma Group, a group of private biopharmaceutical companies focused on metabolic disorders and cancer, announced today that it has closed the acquisition from EUSA Pharma of a preclinical recombinant L-asparaginase program for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and other haematological malignancies. Within this agreement, EUSA Pharma was granted an option to license back the product. The financial figures of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Alizé Pharma Group also announced that it created Alizé Pharma II SAS and that it raised 1.1 M Euros from Octalfa SAS and CEMA Inc., its historical investors, for the purpose of the transaction. The proceeds of the financing are being used for the upfront payment of the acquisition and to reach value-creating R&D milestones within the next 12 months.

“This L-asparaginase program fits ideally in our portfolio and is aligned with our business strategy to focus on the development of products with a clear medical rationale, allowing for a short-term value creation and offering our shareholders potential options for rapid exits”, commented Thierry Abribat, PhD, Founder and President, Alizé Pharma II SAS.

About Alizé Pharma
Founded in 2007, the Alizé Pharma Group (www.alz-pharma.com) is a group of biopharmaceutical companies specialized in the development of innovative therapeutics for the treatment of metabolic diseases and cancer. Alizé Pharma SAS is focused on the AZP-01 program, a family of unacylated ghrelin analogs for the treatment of type II diabetes, currently generating proof-of-concept clinical data in collaboration with Erasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam), the Netherlands, and University of Torino, Italy. The newly created Alizé Pharma II SAS will be dedicated to the development of a recombinant L-asparaginase, the AZP-02 program, currently at the preclinical stage for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and to AZP-03, a program in the field of metabolism to be announced. Since its inception in 2007, the Alizé Pharma Group has raised 2 M euros. The main shareholders are Dr. Thierry Abribat, Octalfa SAS, a French holding company owned by Dr. Gilles Alberici, and CEMA Inc., a Canadian holding company owned by Dr. André de Villers.