Update on Diabetes Product Candidate

SkyePharma Announces Update on Diabetes Product Candidate

LONDON, UK, 2 September, 2011 - SkyePharma PLC (LSE: SKP) today announces the completion of an initial 'Proof of Concept' study for its diabetes care product candidate, SKP-1052, and that it is now seeking a partner to fund further development.

SKP-1052 is targeted at the growing multi-billion dollar market for diabetes management. It applies SkyePharma's proprietary and patented oral Geoclock™ technology to improve the delivery of an existing marketed active pharmaceutical ingredient, with the potential to create an innovative treatment option for an important unmet medical need.

An initial proof of concept study has recently been completed and the Company is now seeking a development and marketing partner to fund further development of SKP-1052 from Phase I trials through to approval and, subject to approval, to market the product.

Prof. David Owens, Clinical Professor, Centre for Endocrinology and Diabetes Sciences at Cardiff University, said: "The preliminary study of SKP-1052 has provided encouraging results for a product which would address an unmet medical need in the management of persons with insulin-treated diabetes. I look forward to its further development."

SkyePharma's Chief Executive Officer, Axel Müller, said: "This product candidate, which has been conceived and developed internally, demonstrates SkyePharma's ability to apply its technologies to create innovative new product concepts. We look forward to finding a strong development and marketing partner capable of working with us to develop the product for the worldwide diabetes care market."

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About SkyePharma PLC

Using its proprietary drug delivery technologies, SkyePharma develops new formulations of known molecules to provide a clinical advantage and life-cycle extension. The Group has twelve approved products in the areas of oral, inhalation and topical delivery. The Group's products are marketed throughout the world by leading pharmaceutical companies. For more information, visit www.skyepharma.com.

About Geoclock™

Geoclock™ is part of SkyePharma's Geomatrix™ family of technologies and has been developed to enable timed release of active pharmaceutical ingredients for use in applications where the time of release is important (chronotherapy). Geoclock® tablets have an active drug inside an outer tablet layer consisting of a mixture of hydrophobic wax and brittle material in order to obtain a pH-independent lag time prior to core drug delivery at a predetermined release rate. This dry coating approach is designed to allow the timed release of both slow release and immediate release active cores by releasing the inner tablet first after which time the surrounding outer shell gradually disintegrates. As well as chronotherapy applications Geoclock® technology has applications for the improved release of colonic drug delivery as well as multiple pulse drug delivery to deliver doses of the drug at specific times throughout the day. Geoclock™ technology is used in Lodotra™, a rheumathoid arthritis drug, approved in 14 European countries and Israel. It is also used in SKP-1041, being developed for sleep maintenance and in SKP-1052, being developed for a particular aspect of diabetes care.

About diabetes

Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, and/or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. Diabetes is a global and growing epidemic affecting an estimated 285m people worldwide. According to IMS the diabetes care market is worth about $35 billion per annum and growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.4%.

About Professor David Owens

Professor David R Owens, CBE, MD, FRCP, FIBiol, is Clinical Professor, Centre for Endocrinology and Diabetes Sciences at Cardiff University. He has had a long and successful career in clinical research into several aspects of diabetes and diabetes care. Amongst his interests has been the natural history of type 2 diabetes and the evaluation of new therapies for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, especially in the field of pharmacokinetics of the many insulin formulations made available over the years. He has been also been actively interested in the role of SMBG in diabetes and has contributed to several IDF guidelines on the subject.

He was the Founder and first Clinical Director and Lead for the National Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service for Wales, which was established in 2002. Additionally, he was the first Clinical Lead for the Diabetes Research Network in Wales.

More recently, along with along with colleagues, Professor Owens has developed the on-line Postgraduate Diploma in Diabetes. He is the Clinical Director of this very successful course which is now in its fourth year and encompasses students from across the globe.

Professor Owens is renowned as a key opinion leader and is regularly invited to participate at major international meetings and advisory boards. He has published extensively with approximately 300 journal articles, book chapters, etc. Over the years, he has supervised many MSc, PhD and MD research fellow students. In 2003 he was awarded a CBE for his services to the National Health Service.