Quark Pharmaceuticals Inc.

FREMONT, California, August 18, 2010 - Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a world leader in the discovery and development of RNAi-based therapeutics, today announced that it has granted Novartis an option to obtain an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize its p53 temporary inhibitor siRNA drug QPI-1002, currently the subject of a Phase II clinical trial.