Dublin, Ireland, 29th April 2010: Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Investee Merrion Pharmaceuticals plc (IEX:MERR), a pharmaceutical development company, today announced that its partner, Novo Nordisk initiated, in March 2010, its first Phase I clinical trial with an oral GLP1 analogue (NN9925). Merrion Pharmaceuticals plc, GIPET® technology is used in the formulation of NN9925.

Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, Executive Vice President and CSO, Novo Nordisk, speaking at Novo Nordisk's Q1 2010 conference call, said: "Novo Nordisk initiated a Phase I trial for an orally administered GLP-1 analogue formulated using Merrion Pharmaceuticals GIPET technology. In brief, the Novo Nordisk R&D strategy seeks to maximise the likelihood of success for its oral diabetes protein portfolio by adopting an approach of clinically investigating several different tailor made degredation persistent analogues of insulin and GLP-1 formulated through the use of various state of the art oral protein delivery technologies"

'This is another significant step forward for Merrion and our GIPET technology' said John Lynch, CEO, Merrion Pharmaceuticals plc. 'Oral GLP-1 analogues are one of a number of products which GIPET could bring to market. Merrion continues to make great progress in building a substantial business'.

Commenting on the investment, Dr. Daniel O' Mahony, Partner, Kernel Capital said: "Merrion Pharmaceuticals has made tremendous strides in the on-going development of its GIPET® drug delivery technology since establishing the development agreement with Novo Nordisk in 2009 for oral delivery of peptide-based therapeutics for treatment of diabetes. The commencement by Novo Nordisk of Phase I clinical studies in man, for oral delivery of the GLP-1 analogue NN9925 using Merrion's technology is further validation of Merrion's break-through oral drug delivery technology platform."

In January 2009, Merrion entered into a development and licence agreement to develop and commercialise oral formulations of Novo Nordisk's proprietary GLP-1 analogues, using Merrion's proprietary GIPET® technology. Commencing clinical trials is a significant milestone in the development of an oral GLP1. In December 2009 Merrion announced that an oral insulin compound had entered clinical trials under a separate agreement with Novo Nordisk.

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For further information please contact:

Orla Rimmington, Operations Manager, Kernel Capital.
Tel: +353 21 4928974 / Fax: +353 21 4928977