Starpharma Holdings Limited

Starpharma is a world leader in the development of dendrimer nanotechnology of pharmaceutical, life-science and other industrial applications. Starpharma is principally composed of two operating companies, Starpharma Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Australia and Dendritic Nanotechnologies, Inc in Michigan, USA.

Established in 1996, Starpharma has a comprehensive intellectual property (IP) portfolio that comprises more than 180 patents/applications issued and pending across 32 patent families – a unique level of IP concentration among nanotechnology companies.

The company’s lead pharmaceutical development product is Viva-Gel®, an investigational new drug being developed for prevention of HIV and HSV-2.

A vaginal microbicide, VivaGel is the recipient of a 20.3 million USD contract from the US-based National Institutes of Health (NIH, Bethesda, Maryland) to accelerate development of its HIV indication. The development of VivaGel is also subject to Fast Track status for its HIV indication by the FDA. VivaGel has also received additional NIH funding for its genital herpes indication.

In multiple clinical trials, VivaGel was shown to have a similar safety profile to that of the placebo gel, in testing in both women and men. Based on these results the product is deemed suitable for continued development as a topical microbicide for the prevention of HIV and genital herpes (HSV) and the exploration of other potential indications such as the human papilloma virus (HPV). These findings support current and future clinical studies to assess the safety and efficacy of VivaGel for genital herpes and HIV in sexually active women.

VivaGel’s active ingredient SPL7013 (centre) is believed to bind to specific proteins on the surface of HIV (top), preventing fusion with human cells.

In the pharmaceutical field Starpharma has additional specific programs in the areas of Drug Delivery and AD ME Engineering™ (using dendrimers to control where and when drugs go when introduced to the body), Polyvalency (using the fact that dendrimers can activate multiple receptors simultaneously) and Targeted Diagnostics (using dendrimers as a scaffold to which both location-signalling and targeting groups are added to allow location of specific cell type, such as cancer cells).

More broadly the company is actively exploring dendrimer opportunities in materials science with applications as diverse as adhesives, lubricants and water remediation.

Other products based on SPL’s dendrimer technology are already on the market in the form of diagnostic elements and laboratory reagents. PrioStar™ dendrimers are new products with new and improved properties and were engineered to be commercially viable for use in industrial, cosmetic, life science, and special chemical sectors. The PrioFect™ technology, a transfection agent based on Prio-star dendrimers, was recently licensed to EMD Biosciences. Other applications of this technology have also been licensed to Dade Behring, Sigma Aldrich and Qiagen. Starburst dendrimers are traditional poly-amidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers popular with researchers worldwide as a research tool for early stage drug discovery and development.

Starpharma has approximately 50 employees and is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: SPL).

Starpharma Holdings Ltd.

75 Commercial Road

Melbourne, Victoria 3004

Australia

Phone: [phone]

www.starpharma.com

[e-mail]

Starpharma is a world leader in the development of dendrimer nanotechnology of pharmaceutical, life-science and other industrial applications. The Company’s lead pharmaceutical development product is VivaGel®, an investigational new drug being developed for prevention of HIV and HSV-2.