Almirall confers the 2005 Pharmacology Award

·Within the field of pharmacology, this award is distinguished for recognising a future research project as opposed to a completed project

Barcelona, 30^th September 2005 – At the 27^th Congress of the Spanish Pharmacological Society that is taking place in Girona from the 27^th to the 30^th of September, the 2005 Pharmacology Award is being conferred. Jointly promoted by Almirall and the Spanish Pharmacological Society (SEF), this is the first award to recognise the quality of future research projects within the field of pharmacology in Spain.

The winning project, “Evaluation of possible therapeutic targets for the prevention of ageing and/or associated neurodegenerative diseases” by Dr. Mercè Pallàs, from the University of Barcelona, is awarded with 9,000 Euros and will be carried out during 2005-2006. The results will be presented in the next Congress of the Spanish Pharmacological Society.

The jury, consisting of Dr. Felipe Sánchez de la Cuesta, President of SEF, Dr. Jesús Llenas and Dr. Amadeu Gavaldà, both at Almirall, completed the evaluation of the projects through an independent scoring process as well as through final consensus among the jury members. According to Dr. Gavaldá, “the task of selecting the winning project was not an easy one due to the high quality of the work submitted. In order to find the winner we took into account the originality and topicality of the project, the difficulty associated with its realisation, and, especially, the new information it provides to the field of pharmacology.”

The results of the 2004 Pharmacology Award will be presented during the event by Dr. Joaquín Jordán.

About Almirall

Almirall, a leading company committed to health, is a consolidated international pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercialises drugs from its own R&D, as well as licensed drugs, with the aim of improving health and quality of life.

Almirall focuses its drug discovery resources in therapeutic areas related to the treatment of asthma, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Almirall will be investing 500 million Euros in R&D over the next five years. This is the largest investment in this area by a Spanish pharmaceutical company. Forecasts for total sales in 2005 amount to 946 million Euros.

Almirall, whose headquarters are in Barcelona (Spain), has a staff of over 3,200 people, approximately 500 of whom form part of the R&D team. Almirall currently has a presence in more than 100 countries with its own products and products licensed from other prestigious companies.The company is strengthening its direct presence in Europe and Latin America via affiliates.