Word of the Day

Commodity

Even if you don't think you do, you already know plenty about commodities. Want us to prove it? No problem.

What makes oil produced in Saudi Arabia different from oil exported from Nigeria? It's the same thing that makes the corn you ate at last summer¿s barbecue different from the corn used to produce ethanol. Stumped? Well, don't feel bad, it's a trick question. The answer? Absolutely nothing. Corn is corn no matter where it comes from -- just as wheat is wheat and natural gas is -- right! -- natural gas. (Though the quality may differ, the make-up is uniform.)

So, in less elaborate terms, corn and oil (and all other commodities) are homogenous goods that can be processed, resold and more often than not, used as an input to the production of other goods or services. These goods are traded on a commodity exchange, thus setting the price-per-barrel (or other metric unit) used to value them.

Now pay attention, here's a question that indeed does have an answer: What is the difference between a commodity and a stock? While a stock can tank and become worthless, a commodity cannot have its value be wiped to zero. One other difference: Most commodities are traded in futures, meaning traders buy and sell where they think the price of a product will be at a certain point in the future. Stocks trade based on the value of the underlying company at that point in time.

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

XTL Biopharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of Laurence N. Charney to Board of Directors

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Comtex

VALLEY COTTAGE, N.Y., May 28, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ ----XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq: XTLB; TASE: XTL) today announced that Laurence N. Charney, CPA, has been appointed to XTL's Board of Directors. The appointment, effective immediately, increases the size of XTL's Board to six members.

Mr. Charney, 61, recently retired from his position as a Partner of Ernst & Young LLP, an international assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services firm, having served that firm for over thirty-five years. At Ernst & Young, Mr. Charney most recently served as the Americas Area Director of Conflict Management. In that role he had oversight and responsibility in ensuring compliance with global and local conflict of interest policies for client and engagement acceptance across all service lines. Mr. Charney previously served as an audit partner where his global practice focused on the media and entertainment, telecom and software industries servicing public and private companies in addressing their transactional, regulatory, corporate governance, Sarbanes-Oxley, tax and accounting challenges.

Since July 2007, he has served on the Audit Committee and Board of Directors of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL). In June 2007, he completed a term as the Chairman of the Audit Committee of UJA - Federation of New York. Mr. Charney graduated with a BBA degree from Hofstra University and completed the Executive MBA in Business program at Columbia University.

Ron Bentsur, Chief Executive Officer of XTL, commented "We are excited to have Larry join our Board of Directors. Through his many years of experience in public accounting, Larry is well-versed in matters related to SEC and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. We believe that his skills provide a valuable addition to XTL's Board, as we prepare for the next stage of the company's growth following what we hope will be a successful completion of our Phase 2b study of Bicifadine in Q4 2008."

ABOUT XTL BIOPHARMACEUTICALS LTD.

XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. ("XTL") is engaged in the development of therapeutics for the treatment of diabetic neuropathic pain and HCV. XTL is developing Bicifadine, a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, for the treatment of diabetic neuropathic pain, which is currently in a Phase 2b study. XTL has out-licensed its novel pre-clinical HCV small molecule inhibitor program. XTL also has an active in-licensing and acquisition program designed to identify and acquire additional drug candidates. XTL is publicly traded on the NASDAQ and Tel-Aviv Stock Exchanges (Nasdaq: XTLB; TASE: XTL).

Cautionary Statement

Some of the statements included in this press release, particularly those anticipating future clinical and business prospects for our clinical compound for neuropathic pain, Bicifadine, growth and operating strategies and similar matters, may be forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Among the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially is our ability to complete in a timely and cost effective manner clinical trials on Bicifadine, which could directly impact our ability to continue to fund our operations; our ability to meet anticipated development timelines for all of our drug candidates due to recruitment, clinical trial results, manufacturing capabilities or other factors; the success of our drug development and marketing arrangements with third parties; and other risk factors identified from time to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 27, 2008. Any forward-looking statements set forth in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. We do not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof. This press release and prior releases are available at http://www.xtlbio.com. The information in our website is not incorporated by reference into this press release and is included as an inactive textual reference only.

SOURCE XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.

http://www.xtlbio.com

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