PALAU PHARMA is a product-driven specialty pharmaceutical company devoted to the discovery and development of safer medicines for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. The R&D track record, the strategy and the business model of the Company position PALAU PHARMA as pioneer and leader in the Spanish biopharmaceutical industry.

Backed by a wealth of experience in both medicinal chemistry, discovery biology and preclinical pharmacology Palau is focused on developing ‘first-class' drugs that modulate the activity of highly validated targets for which established clinical proof-of-concept exists.

Employing a solid strategy, Palau always takes its compounds through to a minimum of phase II development; it then either continues development of them to completion or partners/licenses them for late stage development and commercialization.

Based in Barcelona, Spain, PALAU PHARMA is the spin-out of GRUPO URIACH's R&D Unit, the discoverer and developer of the antiplatelet agent Disgren® (trifusal), and the antihistaminic agent Rupafin® (rupatadine).

The Company benefits from the advantage of belonging to a well-established Group, from which PALAU PHARMA has inherited the R&D's Management and Scientific teams. This group of managers and scientists has a proven track record in developing promising novel pharmaceuticals, from drug discovery to commercialization. Specifically, it has very strong expertise in immune and inflammation-based diseases, rational design of small molecules, clinical development, and patent strategy.

PALAU PHARMA was created on November 1, 2006. The company has been capitalized through a private placement of approximately 40M €. The investors in PALAU PHARMA are Invercartera (Grupo Caixa Catalunya), Caja Duero, Andosins Capital and Najeti Capital. GRUPO URIACH is the majority shareholder in PALAU PHARMA.

Palau's partnering strategy is to expand its pipeline, incorporating new patent-protected chemical entities arising from its own drug discovery as well as those acquired from in-licensing agreements. Palau has an excellent knowledge of the partnering process and currently has projects partnered with Schering-Plough, Stiefel Laboratories, Affectis Pharmaceuticals and IberHospitex.

Our therapeutic fields of interest are diseases of inflammatory and autoimmune origin such as asthma, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease.

We maximize the value of our projects by developing promising molecules up to Phase II clinical studies (proof-of-concept in human subjects), in order to license them out to the best possible partner. Opportunistically, PALAU PHARMA will develop some of its projects up to registration, and could eventually also commercialize some of its products.

Partnerships

Palau is interested in the following:

• Drug discovery alliances to jointly develop novel small molecules for inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.
• To out-license their patent-protected New Chemical Entities
• To in-license from late preclinical stage to phase IIa clinical trials.
• To establish partnerships with global companies for the late stage development and commercialization of its products. The company is also open to the possibility of establishing partnerships and collaborative agreements at earlier stages of development, as it has successfully done in the past.