XTL announces MinoGuard acquisition

- MinoGuard, a Private Biotechnology Company Developing Drugs for Mental Health Diseases, With its Lead Compound, SAM-101 for the Treatment of Schizophrenia;

- MinoGuard Successfully Completed a 70 Patient Phase 2a Clinical Trial in Schizophrenia - use of the Drug Indicated Improvement of the Positive Symptoms of the Disease as well as Decrease of its Negative Symptoms

XTL announced on March 24, 2011, it entered into a term sheet to acquire the activity of MinoGuard Ltd. ("MinoGuard") by obtaining an exclusive license to use MinoGuard's entire technology in return for royalties on sales and milestone payments throughout the clinical development process. MinoGuard was founded in 2007 in order to commercialize combination therapies for treating psychotic diseases, focusing on schizophrenia. The transaction is subject, among other things, to due diligence studies, examination of the regulatory track for the continued development of the drug and the approval of the Company's board.

MinoGuard was founded by Mor research Applications Ltd., Clalit Health Services technology transfer office, on the basis of a discovery made by Prof. Yechiel Levkovitz and Dr. Shlomo Mendlovic, heads of departments at the Shalvata Mental Health Center.

SAM-101, MinoGuard's leading drug, is based on a combination of existing anti-psychotic drugs and a recognized medicinal compound.

MinoGuard has successfully completed a phase 2a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial conducted on about 70 schizophrenics. The trial's endpoints were met, proving that SAM-101 improves the positive symptoms of the disease as well as the patients' cognitive state, minimizes the negative symptoms (social parameters and patient cognition) and reduces side effects such as overweight among patients.

Schizophrenia is a severe and chronic (psychotic) mental illness and one of the most common. It affects the majority of social and mental functions, mood, perception, thought and cognitive functions according to the United States National Institute of Mental Health approximately 1.1% of the adult population in the United States has schizophrenia. According to a research by Decision Resources, the schizophrenia treatment industry in 2009 amounted to approximately $ 5.6 billion.

David Grossman, XTL's CEO mentioned that "The acquisition of MinoGuard would be in line with the Company's strategy to focus on late-stage clinical development drugs and treatments with a known safety profile, which address large markets with clear unmet clinical needs". Grossman added "it is our intention to continue with our strategy to broaden our drug development pipeline".