Cambridge, UK, 13 July 2006 - CeNeS Pharmaceuticals (AIM:CEN), the Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company is holding its AGM today. At the meeting Alan Goodman, the Chairman of CeNeS, will make the following announcement: 

“I am pleased to report that CeNeS continues to make good progress in all of its drug development programmes.  

Our lead programme M6G (morphine-6-glucuronide) is currently recruiting patients into its pivotal Phase III trial testing M6G against morphine as a new treatment for post-operative pain. Patient recruitment is expected to complete in the next few months and we are on track to announce results before the end of this year. We are currently actively recruiting patients in 6 countries at 18 sites. Additional countries and sites are in line to be active in the trial in the near future as planned. 

Success in this pivotal Phase III trial of M6G will mean a major breakthrough in the development of new pain drugs. M6G has the potential to be a significant new drug with a unique profile that will assist patients and physicians alike in the successful management of post-operative pain. 

We have also announced today a major co-development partnership with Ergomed to develop our novel NMDA antagonist CNS 5161 for the treatment of neuropathic pain and certain other types of pain. The commencement of two Phase II studies under this agreement means that CeNeS now has three clinical studies ongoing in Europe. The assignment of the transdermal patch technology from Alza also demonstrates that CeNeS is well positioned to deliver the data package that will be required by larger pharmaceutical companies if a successful CNS 5161 partnering deal is to be achieved for the neuropathic pain market which is forecast to reach $5bn by 2010.   

CeNeS’ earlier pipeline continues to progress well. Preclinical studies with the short acting sedative CNS 7056X and the lead optimisation work ongoing on our novel series of COMT inhibitors for Parkinson’s disease confirms our confidence that we have high quality programmes that are well positioned to deliver proof  of concept data in the next 12 months. We are also encouraged by the commercial interest in both our early stage programmes from potential partners. 

CeNeS pipeline is very focused and well balanced with clearly defined clinical and commercial targets. CeNeS is well placed to deliver important data from its lead programme M6G and also now has an active Phase II programme following behind as well as a promising early stage pipeline.  

I am looking forward to the short term and longer term future of the company with confidence.” 

-ENDS-

For more information please contact: 

CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc                                                   

Tel: +44 (0)1223 266466

Neil Clark CEO 

Northbank Communications                                       

Tel: +44 (0)20 7886 8150

Rowan Minnion – r.minnion@northbankcommunications.com

Douglas Pretsell – d.pretsell@northbankcommunications.com