Specialty Pharmaceutical Company Wins Texas Moot Corp Competition

February 9, 2007, Austin, TX— MacuCLEAR Corporation, a specialty development-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing ophthalmic pharmacologic innovations into therapeutics in areas where a compelling medical need exists, beat out three teams to win the Texas round of the Moot Corp® Competition, the new venture competition hosted annually at The University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business.

As winner of the Texas round, MacuCLEAR qualifies to receive the opportunity for one year of free support and one free office at the Austin Technology Incubator and advancement to the Global Moot Corp Competition in Austin this May.

"Participating in the Texas Moot Corp Competition has been a great experience. We will take the lessons we have learned forward to help us move closer to gaining funding. The constructive feedback from the experts who served as judges and the things we learned from the other teams will help us refine our pitch. Now we will focus on moving quickly to execute our plan," said Doug Baum, Executive Vice President of MacuCLEAR.

MacuCLEAR Corporation has developed a treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is the leading cause of legal blindness among adults age 50 or older in the Western world. There is no available pharmaceutical treatment for dry AMD today.  MacuCLEAR will complete the development and commercialization of MC-1101, a pharmaceutical drug being developed to treat dry AMD The MacuCLEAR team members include Doug Baum and Christopher R. Aniszczyk from the Master of Science in Science and Technology Commercialization (MSSTC) program at the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas at Austin.

“The judges had a tough decision. All four teams represented companies with viable investment potential.” said Rob Adams, Director of Moot Corp Program.

MacuCLEAR beat out three other finalists in the Texas round of the 2007 competition:

• NANOTaxi will commercialize a novel platform for nano-targeted drug delivery, with our initial market of cancer therapeutics. We will bring the technology from early stage to a clinical proof in vivo (animals, humans) and then license/partner with a pharma/biotech.

• FitCapital.com is a web-based platform that allows all stakeholders of the fitness industry to network, communicate, find information, buy/sell products and services, etc.

• The SixthSense system analyzes video, infrared and radar inputs/signals to detect, range and track potential terrorist threats to land-based and offshore assets.

The Moot Corp Competition simulates the process of raising venture capital. It is a unique partnership that brings together MBAs and business leaders. The judges function as an investment group seeking to reach consensus on the business venture they would most likely fund. The judges base their decision on the quality of the idea, the strength of the management team and the clarity and persuasiveness of the written plan and oral presentation.

The Texas Moot Corp Competition is hosted by the McCombs School of Business at The University Competition was the first competition of its of Texas at Austin. The Moot Corp kind focused on entrepreneurship and is the oldest operating inter-business CompetitionÒschool new-venture competition in the world. The Global Moot Corp is recognized as the Super Bowl of world business-plan competition.