PARIS, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Novexel, a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel antibiotics designed to overcome the significant global problem of microbial resistance, announces that its pipeline will be the subject of five posters at the joint annual meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and the Infectious Disease Society of America (48th annual ICAAC/IDSA 46th annual meeting), which takes place in Washington, DC, October 25-28, 2008.

NXL104, Novexel's broad spectrum class A and C ss-lactamase inhibitor, will be the subject of three posters. In vitro data will be presented showing that a ceftazidime/NXL104 combination is rapidly bactericidal against a range of beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae and that one of the most important factors affecting the pharmacodynamics of the combination is maintaining a critical concentration of the inhibitor (NXL104) that suppresses beta-lactamase activity. (Poster A-023). A second poster describes the use of a ceftazidime/NXL104 disk diffusion assay for the detection and identification of the Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase enzyme (KPC) in Enterobacteriaceae (Poster D-291b). The third poster details a microbroth dilution quality control study on ceftazidime/NXL104 (Poster F-2665).

The potent in vitro activity of NXL103, a novel oral streptogramin, will be presented against a range of staphylococci, including vancomycin intermediate and resistant isolates (Poster F1-365).

A fifth poster covers the anti-staphylococcal activity of NXL101, a bacterial gyrase inhibitor, now discontinued.

All posters will be available for download from Novexel's web site (http://www.novexel.com) shortly after the close of ICAAC.

About Novexel

Novexel is a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel antibiotics designed to overcome the significant global problem of microbial 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 $15bn in 2007 according to information derived from the IMS Midas(R) database.

Novexel currently has two novel antibacterials in Phase II clinical development. These are the injectable beta-lactamase inhibitor, NXL104, which is being developed in combination with the cephalosporin antibiotic ceftazidime for serious Gram negative infections, and the oral streptogramin antibiotic, NXL103, for the treatment of Gram positive infections, with a focus on treatment in the hospital setting and intravenous (IV) to oral switch. Novexel has three further programmes in preclinical development, NXL105, a novel anti-Pseudomonal antibiotic, NXL201, a novel echinocandin antifungal agent, and NXL104 in combination with ceftaroline. This latter product is being developed by our partner, Forest Laboratories, solely for North American markets.

Novexel was created in December 2004 as an independent spin-out of the sanofi-aventis (Euronext Paris: SAN, NYSE: SNY) anti-infectives unit. Novexel has a team of 50 employees with significant experience in anti-infective research and development, who are located in Paris, France and Philadelphia, USA.

For further information please contact: Novexel Gordon Waldron, CFO Tel: +33-1-5714-0777 gordon.waldron@novexel.com Citigate Dewe Rogerson Amber Bielecka/David Dible/Nina Enegren Tel.: +44(0)207-638-95-71 amber.bielecka@citigatedr.co.uk

For further information please contact: Novexel, Gordon Waldron, CFO, Tel: +33-1-5714-0777, gordon.waldron@novexel.com; Citigate Dewe Rogerson, Amber Bielecka/David Dible/Nina Enegren, Tel.: +44(0)207-638-95-71, amber.bielecka@citigatedr.co.uk