Alfacell Announces Management Update( SOMERSET N.J. Dec. 12 /- Alfacell Co...),Health

SOMERSET, N.J., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --Alfacell Corporation (Nasdaq: ACEL) today announced that Lawrence A. Kenyon, its president, chief financial officer and corporate secretary, will resign as an employee of Alfacell as of today. Mr. Kenyon will remain on the board of directors of Alfacell and will also serve as acting president, chief financial officer and corporate secretary until at least January 31, 2009. Mr. Kenyon has accepted a full time position as executive vice president of finance at Par Pharmaceutical, Inc., effective December 15, 2008.

In addition, the company has also announced that it will undertake a cost reduction program focused on reducing and/or eliminating all development program and personnel costs not essential to its efforts to complete a rolling New Drug Application (NDA) submission for ONCONASE in patients suffering from unresectable malignant mesothelioma. The goal of this cost reduction program is to best position the company to be able to maintain operations after receiving guidance from the FDA at its pre-NDA meeting at the end of January 2009.

About ONCONASE(R)

ONCONASE is a first-in-class therapeutic product candidate based on Alfacell's proprietary ribonuclease (RNase) technology. A natural protein isolated from the leopard frog, ONCONASE has been shown in the laboratory and clinic to target cancer cells while sparing normal cells. ONCONASE triggers apoptosis, the natural death of cells, via multiple molecular mechanisms of action.

Alfacell has licensed the U.S. commercial rights for ONCONASE to Strativa Pharmaceuticals, a division of Par Pharmaceutical, Inc. Strategic marketing and distribution agreements for ONCONASE have been secured with Megapharm Ltd. for Israel, BL&H Co. Ltd. for Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, USP Pharm
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