Almirall confers the 2006 Pharmacology Award during the Spanish Pharmacology Society Congress

• The award, worth €9000, was given to Dr Concepción Peiró for the project: “Insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction and vascular inflammation:role of adipokines”

• The aim of this award is to promote research in Spanish pharmacology

Barcelona, September 22^nd 2006.- The 2006 Pharmacology Award is awarded today during the 28^TH Congress of the Spanish Pharmacology Society, held in Santiago de Compostela from 19^th to 22^nd September.It is jointly promoted by Almirall and the Spanish Pharmacological Society (SEF). This year, the award, worth €9000, has been given to Dr Concepción Peiró, from the Autonomous University of Madrid, for the project: “Insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction and vascular inflammation: role of adipokines”.

The project will be performed between 2006-2007 and its results presented in the next Spanish Pharmacological Society Congress. This is the only award in Spain to recognise a future research project to be developed within the pharmacology field in Spain as opposed to a completed project.

The jury was made up of Dr Francisco Zaragoza, President of the Spanish Pharmacology Society and doctors Jesús Llenas and Amadeu Gavaldà, both from Almirall. They assessed the works through an independent scoring process and then through final consensus. According to Dr Llenas, “in the project selected Dr Peiró promotes research in a very important area for pharmacology. This is why we had no doubts in conceding her the award. Even so, it was very difficult to select one winner. The quality of the other projects was very high, just like in previous years”.

The results of the 2005 Pharmacology Award will be presented during the event.

About Almirall

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

Almirall is to invest 750 million euros in R&D over the next five years. Almirall, whose headquarters are in Barcelona (Spain), has a staff of 3,200 people, 500 of them work in R&D and with approximately 1,000 working internationally in Almirall’s affiliate companies.

The therapeutic areas on which Almirall focuses its research resources are related to the treatment of COPD, asthma, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis. Almirall is currently present in approximately 100 countries. The company has direct presence in Europe and Latin America via affiliates in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Mexico.