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re: + + us notice of allowance on key aod9604 pat 9 Febr. 2004

US Notice of Allowance on key AOD9604 patent
confirms unrestricted monopoly until 2018

Metabolic Pharmaceuticals announced today that the US Patent Office has issued a Notice of Allowance on its key obesity patent application, which confirms that the patent will be granted covering Metabolic's AOD9604 obesity compound and a range of similar
compounds.

The Notice of Allowance cements patent protection of Metabolic's obesity drug AOD9604 in the world’s most important market. The new patent will extend the US
patent monopoly already granted to Metabolic on obesity treatment (US Patents
5,869,452 and 6,335,319 expiring Feb 2016 and Nov 2014 respectively) to September 2018, and broaden the monopoly to cover any commercialisation of AOD9604.

Metabolic has already been granted or allowed similar patent applications in Australia, New Zealand and Russia and applications are pending in Europe, Japan, Canada, Brazil and China.

Since November 2003 the Company has been enrolling participants in a double-blind 300-patient Phase 2b human clinical trial of AOD9604 at 5 centres in Australia, assessing weight loss over three months daily oral dosing. Results are scheduled to be released in
Q3 2004.

AOD9604 for obesity is the company’s most advanced project. It is an orally effective peptide analogue of a fragment of human growth hormone which Metabolic believes has the potential to provide a safer and more effective pharmaceutical treatment for obesity.

The drug, discovered by scientists at Monash University, reduces body fat by mimicking
natural hormonal regulation of fat metabolism.