Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Announces Approval to List Shares on NASDAQ and Effective Feb. 4, 2008 a New Trading Sy...( PALATINE Ill. Jan. 31 /- AcuraPha...),Health

PALATINE, Ill., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: ACPH) is pleased to announce that The NASDAQ Stock Market(R) has approved the Company's application to list its common stock on the NASDAQ Capital Market(R) ("NASDAQ"). The Company's common stock will commence trading on NASDAQ on February 4, 2008 under the trading symbol "ACUR".

"We are pleased to join the growing list of specialty pharmaceutical companies trading on NASDAQ," stated Andy Reddick, the Company's CEO. "We believe that our new NASDAQ listing will provide enhanced liquidity and visibility and we are looking forward to attracting research analyst coverage as a result of our listing."

About Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in research, development and manufacture of innovative Aversion(R) (abuse deterrent) Technology and related product candidates.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from our Company's expectations and projections. The most significant of such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our ability, and the ability of King Pharmaceuticals Research and Development, Inc. and other pharmaceutical companies, if any, with whom we may license our Aversion(R) Technology, to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and commercialize products utilizing the Aversion(R) Technology, the ability to avoid infringement of patents, trademarks and other proprietary rights or trade secrets of third parties, and the ability to fulfill the FDA's requirements for approving our product candidates for commercial manufacturing and distribut
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