VIA Pharmaceuticals Receives Favorable Hearing Decision From NASDAQ

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 13, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- VIAP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: VIAP), a biotechnology company focused on the development of compounds for the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic disease, today announced that on October 9, 2009, it received a determination letter from The NASDAQ Stock Market ("NASDAQ") notifying the Company that the NASDAQ Hearing Panel (the "Panel") has granted the Company's request to remain listed on NASDAQ, subject to the Company demonstrating compliance with the NASDAQ Listing Rules (the "Listing Rules") on or before December 31, 2009 (the "Exception Period"). During the Exception Period, the Company must provide prompt notification of any significant events to NASDAQ.

The Panel granted the Company's request after a hearing held on August 27, 2009 in which the Company presented its plan of compliance (the "Plan") with respect to its failure to satisfy NASDAQ's minimum $2.5 million stockholders' equity, board independence, and $1.00 minimum bid price requirements for continued listing. Based on the Company's Plan and its continued execution of the Plan, the Panel found that it was appropriate to allow the Company to remain listed on NASDAQ while the Company works to regain compliance with the Listing Rules.

There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to achieve or sustain the requirements under the Listing Rules to insure that it will maintain its NASDAQ listing.

About VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the development of compounds for the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. VIA's lead candidate, VIA-2291, targets a significant unmet medical need: reducing inflammation in plaque, which is an underlying cause of atherosclerosis and its complications, including heart attack and stroke. In addition, VIA's pipeline of drug candidates includes other compounds to address other underlying causes of cardiovascular disease: high cholesterol, diabetes and inflammation. For more information, visit: http://www.viapharmaceuticals.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to future events or to VIA's future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause VIA's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond VIA's control and which could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to:

    --  our ability to comply with the NASDAQ rules for continued listing;
    --  our ability to borrow additional amounts under the loan from Bay City
        Capital, which is subject to the discretion of Bay City Capital;
    --  our ability to obtain necessary financing in the near term, including
        amounts necessary to repay the loan from Bay City Capital by the October
        31, 2009 maturity date (or earlier if certain repayment acceleration
        provisions are triggered);
    --  our ability to control our operating expenses;
    --  our ability to comply with covenants included in the loan from Bay City
        Capital;
    --  our ability to maintain the listing of our common stock on NASDAQ;
    --  our ability to timely recruit and enroll patients in any future clinical
        trials;
    --  our failure to obtain sufficient data from enrolled patients that can be
        used to evaluate VIA-2291, thereby impairing the validity or statistical
        significance of our clinical trials;
    --  our ability to successfully complete our clinical trials of VIA-2291 on
        expected timetables and the outcomes of such clinical trials;
    --  complexities in designing and implementing cardiometabolic clinical
        trials using surrogate endpoints in Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials
        which may differ from the ultimate endpoints required for registration
        of a candidate drug;
    --  the results of our clinical trials, including without limitation, with
        respect to the safety and efficacy of VIA-2291;
    --  if the results of the ACS and CEA studies, upon further review and
        analysis, are revised, interpreted differently by regulatory authorities
        or negated by later stage clinical trials;
    --  our ability to obtain necessary FDA approvals, including to initiate
        future clinical trials of  VIA-2291;
    --  our ability to successfully commercialize VIA-2291;
    --  our ability to identify potential clinical candidates from the family of
        DGAT1 compounds licensed and move them into preclinical development;
    --  our ability to obtain and protect our intellectual property related to
        our product candidates;
    --  our potential for future growth and the development of our product
        pipeline, including the THR beta agonist candidate and the other
        compounds licensed from Roche;
    --  our ability to obtain strategic opportunities to partner and collaborate
        with large biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies to further develop
        VIA-2291;
    --  our ability to form and maintain collaborative relationships to develop
        and commercialize our product candidates;
    --  general economic and business conditions; and

    --  the other risks described under Item 1A "Risk Factors" in our Annual
        Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008, as
        supplemented by the risks described under Item 1A "Risk Factors" in our
        Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2009 and
        June 30, 2009, each on file with the SEC.

All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements set forth above. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and VIA undertakes no obligation to update publicly any of these statements in light of new information or future events.

SOURCE VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

http://www.viapharmaceuticals.com

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