EquiTech Corporation is a publicly-listed (TSXV: "EQT") biopharmaceutical company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. EquiTech is developing performance-enhanced pharmaceuticals for improved treatment of economically significant medical conditions. EquiTech's lead compounds are pain relief products that absorb faster in an animal model than analgesics currently on the market. Clinical trials will attempt to confirm these results in human patients.

The market opportunity for EquiTech's lead products is impressive. The worldwide pain medication market is over $23 billion (US) in 2000 with annual growth rates in excess of 3.5%. Despite the many types of analgesics available, an independent survey of pain in America indicates that the majority of patients are not completely satisfied with the performance of either prescription or non-prescription oral pain relievers. These surveys indicate substantial market size and unmet market need.

EquiTech's enhanced absorption technology is based on the ground-breaking scientific discoveries of our founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. F. Jamali, a world-renowned pharmaceutical scientist. Dr. Jamali found that pain relief products absorb slower into the body when a patient is in pain, due to inhibited gastric activity. EquiTech's enhanced absorption technology addresses this problem, and aims to deliver pharmaceutical ingredients faster and more effectively.

EquiTech's lead product ZAG-1701 is a fast-acting ibuprofen for the treatment of mild to moderate acute pain. EquiTech scientists have shown that ZAG-1701 absorbs substantially faster than standard ibuprofen in a pain-mimicking animal model. Human clinical trials, beginning in Q3 2003, will attempt to duplicate these results. Because EquiTech's products only use already approved ingredients, it is anticipated that clinical trials will require only 12-24 months to complete, compared to the typical 2-10 years required for approval of new drugs.

EquiTech's current product development pipeline includes the lead ibuprofen product ZAG-1701, an enhanced selective COX-2 inhibitor and an enhanced ibuprofen plus codeine combination product. Furthermore, EquiTech is planning to develop other performance-enhanced pharmaceuticals using the enhanced absorption technology to treat a wide variety of medical conditions.

3 United States and 2 worldwide patent applications have been filed for EquiTech's novel formulations and the innovative research tools used to assess these formulations.

One of EquiTech’s equity partners is Ethypharm Inc. (Laval, Quebec, Canada). The strategic partnership with Ethypharm, a global specialist in development and manufacture of drug delivery systems, provides significant validation of EquiTech’s technology. Ethypharm also has cGMP manufacturing capability within Canada and is a potential manufacturing partner for some of EquiTech’s enhanced absorption technology products, through the development, scale-up and clinical trials phases. EquiTech plans to enter into marketing/distribution partnerships with well-established companies in the pain-relief market after completing clinical trials on its lead products

EquiTech is focused on meeting the needs of unsatisfied pharmaceutical consumers using a low-risk R&D strategy of reformulating off-patent active pharmaceutical ingredients using our enhanced absorption technology. Combine this with a strong intellectual property portfolio and an experienced management team and EquiTech is poised to become a leader in the development of performance enhanced pharmaceuticals for the treatment of major medical conditions.