OctoPlus Announces the Proposal to Appoint Staf Van Reet to the Supervisory Board

LEIDEN, NETHERLANDS--(Marketwire - January 25, 2012) - OctoPlus N.V. ("OctoPlus" or the "Company") (Euronext: OCTO) announces today that the Supervisory Board of the Company plans to propose Dr. Staf Van Reet as chairman of the Supervisory Board at the next General Meeting of Shareholders in May. This appointment will be for a period of four years.

Dr. Van Reet has a long track record of successes in the pharma and biotech industry. He served among others as the Managing Director of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. and President of the Janssen Research Foundation, supervising the worldwide research and development activities of the Janssen Pharmaceutica Group (part of the J&J Group of Companies). Staf also gained extensive experience in the biotech sector as co-founder of Movetis and Chairman of their Board of Directors until the acquisition of the company by Shire. Currently, he is still active in various areas of the life sciences, among others as Chairman of the Board of Actogenix and Okapi Sciences and as a regular Board member of Thrombogenics, Biocartis, TheraSolve and the VIB, the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology.

The Supervisory Board also announces that Dr. de Ruiter has informed the Board of her decision to resign from the Supervisory Board as of January 25.

Hans Stellingsma, chairman of the Supervisory Board of OctoPlus: "Presently I am serving my third and final term on OctoPlus' Supervisory Board, which I have chaired since 2005. In view of my other engagements and since we found in Dr. Staf Van Reet an excellent replacement, I have decided to step down as chairman at the upcoming shareholders' meeting. Staf knows the pharmaceutical industry inside out and I believe his expertise will greatly benefit OctoPlus. We would like to express our gratitude to Nancy de Ruiter and thank her for her contribution to the Supervisory Board."

Staf Van Reet, proposed chairman of the Supervisory Board of OctoPlus: "I feel truly honored being nominated as future chairman of the Supervisory Board of OctoPlus. The company is known to me for a long time and I've been impressed by what it offers to the pharmaceutical and biotech field. OctoPlus combines an innovative proprietary drug delivery platform with thorough knowledge of and experience with complex parenteral drug formulations in general. Moreover, it has a state of the art infrastructure for development activities as well as for manufacturing finished clinical trial materials. I'm excited about the outlook of working together with the OctoPlus team, its Executive Management and the Supervisory Board."

Jan Egberts, CEO of OctoPlus: "Personally, I am delighted with the nomination of Staf Van Reet. Staf's broad scientific and business experience which he gained during his successful career at Janssen Pharmaceutica, ultimately culminating in his role as head of R&D, and in smaller biotech companies such as Movetis will be a key asset to OctoPlus. I look forward to work with Staf to further build our business".

About OctoPlus
OctoPlus is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and manufacture of improved injectable pharmaceuticals based on our proprietary drug delivery technologies that exhibit fewer side effects, improved patient convenience and a better efficacy/safety balance than existing therapies. OctoPlus also focuses on the development of long-acting, controlled release versions of known protein therapeutics, peptides and small molecules, including specialty generics.

The clinically most advanced product incorporating our technology is Locteron®, a controlled release formulation of interferon alpha for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. OctoPlus licensed Locteron exclusively to Biolex in October 2008. Locteron is being manufactured for Biolex by OctoPlus and has completed Phase IIb clinical studies with superior clinical data versus current treatment.

In addition, OctoPlus is a leading European provider of advanced drug formulation and clinical scale manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, with a focus on difficult-to-formulate active pharmaceutical ingredients.

OctoPlus is listed on NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam under the symbol OCTO. For more information about OctoPlus, please visit our website www.octoplus.nl.

This document may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to the business, financial performance and results of the Company and the industry in which it operates. These statements are based on OctoPlus N.V.'s current plans, estimates and projections, as well as its expectations of external conditions and events. In particular the words "expect", "anticipate", "predict", "estimate", "project", "plan", "may", "should", "would", "will", "intend", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We caution investors that a number of important factors, and the inherent risks and uncertainties that such statements involve, could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. In the event of any inconsistency between an English version and a Dutch version of this document, the English version will prevail over the Dutch version.

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