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05 November 2007

Phoqus Pharmaceuticals Appoints Dr Patrick Round as Chief Medical Officer

West Malling, UK, 5 November 2007: Phoqus Pharmaceuticals plc (AIM: PQS) (“Phoqus Pharmaceuticals” or “the Company”), the speciality pharmaceutical company, announces it has appointed Dr Patrick Round to the position of Chief Medical Officer.

Dr Round’s appointment is a key part of the strengthening of Phoqus Pharmaceuticals’ senior management team as the Company progresses its lead product candidate Chronocort^TM towards pivotal Phase III trials, anticipated to commence during the first half of 2008 subject to further consultation with the FDA. As Chief Medical Officer, Dr Round will lead the Chronocort^TM development programme and will also play a key role in building the Company’s future product pipeline.

Prior to joining Phoqus Pharmaceuticals, Dr Round was Senior Vice President Development at Cambridge Antibody Technology (“CAT” now part of AstraZeneca) which he joined in 2004 and was responsible for all of CAT's product development activities. Before joining CAT, he was Director of Development at Celltech Group plc (now part of UCB) where he led product development. He has also held Clinical Research positions at GlaxoWellcome and Novo Nordisk and has extensive experience of the development of new medicines including in the endocrinology/diabetes field and also the development of novel biologic and immunomodulatory drugs. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and graduated in Medicine from Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, London in 1982.

Phoqus Pharmaceuticals’ CEO, Dr Richard Mason, commented:

“The Board is delighted to have attracted a product development professional of Patrick’s calibre and experience to join our company. His expertise in endocrinology will be particularly useful to us at this critical stage of preparing for Chronocort’s pivotal Phase III studies.”

Enquiries:

Phoqus Pharmaceuticals plc - Tel: 01732 870227
Dr Richard Mason, CEO
Dr Peter Johnson, CFO

Financial Dynamics - Tel: 020 7831 3113
David Yates/Sue Quigley

Nomura Code Securities Limited - Tel: 020 7776 1200
Juliet Thompson / Phil Walker

Notes to Editors

About Chronocort^TM
Chronocort^TM is the first circadian endocrine treatment for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (“CAH”) and adrenal insufficiency (“AI”).  Chronocort™ uses Phoqus’ proprietary Qtrol™ modified release technology to provide a delayed-and-sustained release profile of hydrocortisone to mimic the natural over-night and early morning hormone levels found in healthy individuals that are considered important in controlling both actual disease symptoms and also reducing unwanted side effects resulting from excess steroid treatment.

Phoqus appointed a medical advisory board at the beginning of 2007 comprising leading endocrinologists from Europe and the USA to assist the Company in the design of the clinical development programmes able to demonstrate patient benefits and clinical superiority of Chronocort^TM over existing therapies for both CAH and AI.

Some of the underlying intellectual property supporting the Chronocort^TM product is licensed from Diurnal Limited, a spin-out from the University of Sheffield financed by Biofusion plc.  Phoqus and Diurnal collaborate on certain aspects of Chronocort^TM’s development.

About Phoqus
Phoqus Pharmaceuticals is a speciality pharmaceutical company that develops differentiated products for use in high value, specialist indications. It seeks to accelerate the rate and lower the risk of new drug development by applying its novel re-formulation expertise and drug delivery technologies to finding new indications for known, approved drugs. This avoids the high failure rate typically associated with new chemical entities (NCEs) which often founder due to safety issues encountered early in development.

The company’s lead product is Chronocort^TM for the treatment of patients with cortisol deficiency due to diseases such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia and Addison’s Disease. It is differentiated from existing therapies because it is designed to release steroid in a pattern that mirrors a healthy subject. At present Chronocort^TM is scheduled to reach the market in 2009/10.

Phoqus Pharmaceuticals aims to in-license product development opportunities from academia and university spin-out companies. By collaborating with these groups the company will access fundamental biological and clinical insights into existing drug action and apply this knowledge to develop new indications for those drugs. The company aims to capitalise on accelerated regulatory pathways such as the priority review process to further fast track products to market.

Further background on the Company can be found at www.phoqus.com.

  
Phoqus Pharmaceuticals plc
10 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4PQ
Telephone: +44 (0)1732 870227, Fax: +44 (0)1732 870228
Email: info@phoqus.com

www.phoqus.com