Nabi Biopharmaceuticals Initiates New Strategic Alternatives Process


ROCKVILLE, Md., Jan. 22, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:NABI) announced today that its Board of Directors has authorized the exploration of the full range of strategic alternatives available to the company in order to further enhance shareholder value. This strategic alternatives process will focus on, but is not limited to, a sale or merger of the company. Nabi has engaged Banc of America Securities LLC as financial advisor for this strategic process.

"The primary goal of this strategic alternatives process is to maximize shareholder value and we feel Nabi is now streamlined and well-positioned to do so," said Dr. Raafat Fahim, newly-named President and Chief Executive Officer of Nabi. "With the sale of our Biologics business unit, Nabi has a very strong financial position, a focused pipeline of vaccine programs and a right-sized and lean organization. We believe that this strategic alternatives process can more fully optimize the value of our most promising assets, namely NicVAX(r) (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine) and StaphVAX(r) (Staphylococcus aureus Vaccine)."

The successful outcome of this strategic alternatives process is the key corporate goal for this year. While advancing toward this goal, Nabi is also working to achieve several clinical milestones in 2008:


 * Initiating a Phase 2 immunogenicity study for NicVAX(r) in 1H08
 * Initiating a Phase 3 safety and efficacy trial for NicVAX(r) in 2H08
 * Advancing the development of the new antigens of Nabi's pentavalent
   StaphVAX program, enabling the initiation of Phase 1 clinical trials
   in early 2009

Following the successful sale of its Biologics Strategic Business Unit in December 2007, Nabi has re-emerged with a strong balance sheet, a significant potential PhosLo milestone and royalty stream, and a focused vaccine pipeline. The company is moving forward with compelling Phase 2 proof of concept clinical data from its NicVAX program and an expert core vaccine team. Dr. Raafat Fahim, President and CEO of Nabi, will discuss this strategic alternatives process, the company's 2008 goals and its plan to achieve them on a conference call. More information about this call is outlined below.

Upon completion of this strategic alternatives process, Nabi will inform shareholders of the results. The company does not intend to disclose developments with respect to the exploration of strategic alternatives unless and until its Board of Directors has made a decision regarding a specific transaction and a definitive agreement has been executed.

Conference Call Information

The company will host a live webcast at 8:30 a.m. EST tomorrow, January 23, 2008.

The live webcast can be accessed at: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c=100445&eventID=1746962 (Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your browser. Remove the space if one exists.) or via the Nabi Biopharmaceuticals website at http://www.nabi.com.

If you do not have Internet access, the U.S./Canada call-in number is 800-638-5495 and the international call-in number is 617-614-3946. The participant passcode is 21708197. An audio replay will be available for U.S./Canada callers at 888-286-8010 and for international callers at 617-801-6888. The replay passcode is 58454245. An archived version of the webcast will also be available on the Company's website, www.nabi.com. The press release is available on the company's website at www.nabi.com.

About Nabi Biopharmaceuticals

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals leverages its experience and knowledge in powering the immune system to develop products that target serious medical conditions in the areas of gram-positive bacterial infections and nicotine addiction. Nabi Biopharmaceuticals is currently developing NicVAX(r) (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine), an innovative and proprietary investigational vaccine for treatment of nicotine addiction and prevention of smoking relapse, and StaphVAX(r) (Staphylococcus aureus Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine), a vaccine designed to prevent the most dangerous and prevalent strains of S. aureus bacterial infections. The company is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. For additional information about Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, please visit our Web site:http://www.nabi.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are not strictly historical are forward-looking statements including statements about the strategic alternatives process, clinical trials and studies, and potential PhosLo milestones and royalties. You can identify these forward-looking statements because they involve our expectations, beliefs, projections, anticipations or other characterizations of future events or circumstances. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of any number of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, risks relating to our ability to: successfully pursue strategic and other alternatives; obtain successful clinical trial results; receive PhosLo milestone and royalty proceeds; successfully partner with third parties to fund, develop, and manufacture our pipeline products, including NicVAX and our gram-positive infections products; realize anticipated cost saving; attract and maintain the human and financial resources to bring to market products in development; depend upon third parties to manufacture our products; achieve approval and market acceptance of our products; enter into and maintain arrangements with third parties to market and sell our products; comply with reporting and payment obligations under government rebate and pricing programs; raise additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all; and re-pay our outstanding convertible senior notes when due. Many of these factors are more fully discussed, as are other factors, in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 29, 2007 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.



            

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