XTL Biopharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Company Enter Agreement To Evaluate Therapeutics For Hepatitis C - Testing Underway Utilizing Breakthrough Technique For

announced today an agreement to test an Eli Lilly & Company drugcandidate in XTL's proprietary animal model for hepatitis C. Theparties anticipate that XTL's technique could significantlyaccelerate the development and commercialization of drugs totreat hepatitis C, a serious infectious disease that afflictsover 170 million people worldwide. Financial terms of theagreement were not disclosed. The companies will utilize XTL's Trimera(XTL) system; abreakthrough patented method, which enables a mouse to carryhuman liver fragments infected with hepatitis C virus. Normally,animals are not susceptible to hepatitis C infection, a fact thathas severely limited the ability to test promising new drugs. Thenovel Trimera(XTL) system provides a test model for theevaluation of compounds that may have clinical utility for thetreatment of hepatitis C infection. XTL's system offers thepotential to biologically validate the effectiveness of drugcandidates before embarking on costly human clinical studies. Itis anticipated that the availability of a small animal modelcould significantly reduce the time and money needed to developnovel drugs to treat hepatitis C. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is as a major cause of chronichepatitis in the United States and is a leading cause for livertransplantation. An estimated 4 million individuals are infectedwith HCV in the United States, and the World Health Organizationestimates that 170 million people are infected worldwide.Approximately 85% of HCV infected persons will develop chronichepatitis, of which 20% will progress to liver cirrhosis. Thenumber of deaths attributable to hepatitis C is expected totriple in the next 10 to 20 years. In addition to this pioneering work in hepatitis C, XTL isalso initiating a clinical trial in hepatitis B patientsutilizing a combination of two fully human anti-HBV monoclonalantibodies developed utilizing the Trimera(XTL) technology. XTL is a biopharmaceutical company developing fully humanmonoclonal antibody-based therapeutics with a primary focus oninfectious diseases. The Company applies its proprietary drugdiscovery and development "engine," the Trimera(XTL) system, toproduce high affinity, fully human antibodies to a broad range ofdisease targets including hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C(HCV). In addition, XTL has unique, high-value animal models ofhuman diseases including models for testing HBV and HCVtherapeutic drugs. For more information about XTL, visit theCompany's website at http://www.xtlbio.com. A backgrounder on the Trimera(XTL) System is available uponrequest. ots Original Text Service: XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Martin Becker,Ph.D., President and CEO, 972-8-940-5134, becker@xtlbio.com, orGlenn Kazo, Vice President, Business Development, 603-878-9857,gfkazo@aol.com, both of of XTL Biopharmaceuticals, Ltd., orDouglas MacDougall or Kari Lampka of Feinstein Kean PartnersInc., 617-577-8110 Web site: http://www.fkpi.com Web site:http://www.xtlbio.com

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