Argenta Discovery and Dr Reddy’s progress pre-clinical anti-inflammatory candidate to treat chronic respiratory disease

Argenta Discovery Limited, the respiratory drug discovery and development company, and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (NYSE: RDY), today announce a major milestone in their development programme targeting a novel disease-modifying approach to treat the underlying cause of certain chronic respiratory diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and severe asthma.

Argenta’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Christopher Ashton said: “Just 18 months after signing the deal with Dr Reddy’s, the team has already selected the first candidate drug to proceed into pre-clinical development. We are very excited by the exceptional progress this programme has made within such a short timeframe. With GMP material already manufactured we are on target to enter Phase I in mid-2008 and Phase II in 2009. We believe we are first-in-class for this inhaled anti-inflammatory approach to treat chronic respiratory disease.”

Notes to Editors:
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease state characterized by airflow obstruction that is progressive and current therapies, including inhaled corticosteroids, fail to treat disease progression. COPD is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with an overall prevalence in adults over 40 years currently estimated at between 9 and 10%. Unlike many other major diseases, deaths due to COPD are increasing and the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates by 2020 COPD will be the third leading cause of mortality and the fifth leading cause of morbidity in the world. Thus, there is a high level of unmet medical need for this progressive and debilitating disease.

Dr. Reddy’s:
Investor Relations: Nikhil Shah at nikhilshah@drreddys.com or on +91-40-23731946 ext. 308
Media: M Mythili at mythilim@drreddys.com or on +91-40-66511620
Website: http://www.drreddys.com

Argenta Discovery :
Chris Ashton at chris.ashton@argentadiscovery.com or on +44 (0) 1279 645 645