VIA Pharmaceuticals receives NASDAQ delisting notice

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 December 29, 2009, it received a written notice from the listing qualifications staff of the NASDAQ Stock Market ("NASDAQ") informing the Company that trading of the Company's common stock would be suspended prior to the open of business on January 4, 2010 and that NASDAQ would initiate procedures to delist the Company's common stock. The Company had notified NASDAQ on December 23, 2009 that the Company would be unable to comply with NASDAQ listing rule 5550(b), which requires a minimum stockholders' equity requirement of $2.5 million, and NASDAQ listing rule 5605, which requires, among other things, that the Company's board of directors be comprised of at least a majority of independent directors and that the Company's audit committee be comprised of at least three independent directors. The Company does not intend to appeal the determination of NASDAQ with respect to the delisting of its common stock.

Following the delisting of the Company's common stock, the Company expects to be eligible for quotation on the OTC Bulletin Board ("OTCBB"), a regulated quotation service that displays real-time quotes, last sale prices and volume information in over-the-counter securities. However, quotation on the OTCBB will depend on whether one or more market makers will apply and be cleared by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to quote the Company's common stock on the OTCBB. No assurance can be provided that market makers currently making a market in the Company's common stock will continue to make a market in the Company's common stock or that the Company's common stock will continue to be eligible for quotation on the OTCBB. The Company will make every effort to ensure the Company's common stock will be eligible for quotation on the OTCBB on January 4, 2010, but no assurance can be provided. If the Company's common stock is not quoted on the OTCBB beginning on January 4, 2010, the Company believes that active market makers in the Company's common stock will be eligible under a "piggyback qualification" to trade the Company's common stock on the Pink Sheets, a real-time quotation service maintained by Pink Sheets LLC, beginning on January 4, 2010. The transition to the over-the-counter markets does not affect the Company's business operations and will not change its SEC reporting requirements.