Advertisement
The Israeli subsidiary will continue efforts to expand and exploit thepotential of the Company's CB2 receptor-selective library of compounds,including preclinical development of PRS-639,058 for neuropathic pain. It willalso work to complete the Phase 2a clinical trial of Pharmos' proprietaryNanoEmulsion (NE) topical cream drug delivery system formulated with the NSAIDdiclofenac for osteoarthritis pain. The Phase 2a NE/diclofenac study iscurrently underway at several Israeli hospitals, with data anticipated inmid-2008.
Advertisement
This restructuring phase also calls for the Company to assess other meansof financing these programs, such as the possibility of finding new investorsto finance Pharmos Ltd. as an independent entity. Dr. Haim Aviv, the founderof Pharmos, will lead these efforts on behalf of the Company's Board ofDirectors. Other than leading this effort, Dr. Aviv has no management role inPharmos.
The restructuring will have no effect on the Company's late-stage clinicaldevelopment program with dextofisopam, which is currently in Phase 2b testingin the U.S. as a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Thedouble-blinded study, which commenced in June 2007, is designed to enrollapproximately 480 patients with data expected in 2009. Dextofisopam completeda successful Phase 2a IBS study in which it demonstrated a statisticallysignificant improvement over placebo on the primary endpoint of adequateoverall relief (n=141, p=0.033), and was very well tolerated. IBS affectsroughly 10%-15% of U.S. adults and with a void of safe and effective availabletherapies represents a large, underserved market. Dextofisopam's novelnon-serotonergic brain-gut mechanism holds the potential for a unique andinnovative IBS treatment approach.
About Pharmos Corporation
Pharmos Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers anddevelops novel therapeutics to treat a range of diseases of the nervoussystem, including disorders of the brain-gut axis, with a focus onpain/inflammation and autoimmune disorders. The Company currently has twoprograms in clinical testing: the Phase 2b study of dextofisopam as atreatment for IBS and the Phase 2a study of NE/diclofenac as a treatment forosteoarthritis pain. The Company's core proprietary technology platformfocuses on discovery and development of synthetic cannabinoid compounds,especially CB2 receptor-selective agonists. PRS-639,058, the leading CB2-selective agonist, has demonstrated promising preclinical data in neuropathicpain. Various other CB2-selective compounds from Pharmos' pipeline are inpreclinical studies targeting pain, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis,inflammatory bowel disease and other disorders.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements made in this press release related to the business outlook andfuture financial performance of Pharmos, to the prospective market penetrationof its drug products, to the development and commercialization of its pipelineproducts and to its expectations in connection with any future event,condition, performance or other matter, are forward-looking and are madepursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Actof 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may causeresults to differ materially from those set forth in these statements.Additional economic, competitive, governmental, technological, marketing andother factors identified in Pharmos' filings
