Xechem Updates Shareholders at Annual Meeting on Promising Sickle Cell Disease Drug

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Xechem Updates Shareholders at Annual Meeting on Promising Sickle Cell Disease Drug

NEW JERSEY, NEW BRUNSWICK, Nov. 26 -/E-Wire/-- Xechem International, Inc. (OTC BB: ZKEM) provided an update at its Annual Shareholders Meeting on NIPRISANâ¢, its promising drug that will be used to relive the symptoms of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The company noted that it is in advanced discussions with various doctors and hospitals that treat Sickle Cell patients in order to accelerate the development of NIPRISANâ¢.

The Company was granted an exclusive world-wide license for the phytopharmaceutical "NIPRISANâ¢" from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), government of Nigeria, for the treatment of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Xechem is actively pursuing work to enable it to submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application on this product to the US-FDA. Currently there is no successful drug for the treatment of this dreadful disease.

"Our shareholders are very excited about the potential for NIPRISAN," said Ramesh C. Pandey, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. "If there is any criticism of our research and production efforts, it is that we do more of it faster."

While noting the risk inherent in any research program, Dr. Pandey told the audience that Xechem has assembled what it believes is the best group of scientists for the work to come. "Given the multiple projects and size of task, we think the odds of discovery success are excellent and look forward to delivering rewards to our shareholders."

The meeting was held at the company's offices at New Brunswick Technology Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Proxies representing over 90% of the outstanding shares voted in favor of management and its policies and actions over the previous year.

Ronald J. Romanowski, Controller for Xechem, commented that the Company has long had in place and operated under not only existing accounting and SEC standards but also the recently enacted Sarbanes-Oxley Act regulations. He noted that the directors comprising the audit committee of the Board of Directors chaired by Stephen Burg, communicates with the Company's auditors independent from management.

Shareholders overwhelmingly re-elected the incumbent directors, Ramesh C. Pandey, Ph.D. of Highland Park, NJ and Stephen F. Burg of Fairfield, California.

Xechem International, Inc., headquartered in New Brunswick, NJ, with subsidiary companies in the USA, India, Nigeria and joint venture partners in both Hong Kong and the Peoples Republic of China, is a biopharmaceutical company of which Xechem, Inc. (a US subsidiary) is engaged in the research, development and production of generic and proprietary drugs from natural sources, specializing in the development of niche-generic, difficult to replicate anticancer, antiviral, including Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) and antifungal compounds. Xechem is also engaged in the research and development of several novel anti-infectives showing strong and selective efficacy against an array of antibiotic resistant bacterias, including Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), Vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecalis (VREF), Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and other antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. The Company also screens extracts and pure compounds from various parts of the world for their therapeutic use.

XetaPharm (another U.S. subsidiary) develops quality controlled nutritional products such as GinkgoOnceÂ®, GinsengOnceÂ®, GarlicOnceÂ®, Gugulonâ¢, VIDA PRASâ¢ and numerous other nutraceutical products, which are under development.

This and past press releases of Xechem International, Inc. are available at Xechem's web site at www.xechem.com.

For further information, contact Ramesh C. Pandey, Ph.D., President & CEO, at (732) 247 - 3300.

This news release may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to Xechem's future business performance within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are intended to be covered by safe harbors created hereby. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, including the ability of the Companies to successfully develop and commercialize their technologies, and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Companies to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements of the Companies expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. F:\USERS\LINDA\2002\General\Press Releases\PRESS RELEASE 112502 (StockholdersMtg-NIPRISAN).doc

XECHEM INTERNATIONAL, INC

Ramesh C. Pandey, Ph.D.,

at (732) 247 - 3300,

http://www.xechem.com

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