Adial Joins Russell Microcap® Index

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADIL; ADILW) (“Adial” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for the treatment and prevention of addiction and related disorders, today announced that it has been added to the Russell Microcap^® Index. Adial’s addition to the Russell Microcap Index follows the annual Russell indexes reconstitution according to a final list of additions posted on June 25, 2021. Adial’s membership in the Russell Microcap® Index is effective at Nasdaq market open, today, June 28, 2021.

Membership in the Russell Microcap^® Index, which remains in place for one year, provides Adial automatic inclusion in Russell’s appropriate growth and value style indexes. FTSE Russell determines membership for its Russell Indexes primarily by objective, market-capitalization rankings and style attributes.

William Stilley, Chief Executive Officer of Adial, commented, “We are pleased to join the Russell Microcap^® Index. We believe this addition reflects the progress we are making to increase shareholder value by advancing our lead investigational new drug product, AD04, through our ONWARD™ Phase 3 trial for the treatment of alcohol use disorder and due to our acquisition of Purnovate and its adenosine drug development platform. Adial’s inclusion in the index may help improve awareness, liquidity, and exposure within the global community of institutional investors.”

The yearly “Russell Reconstitution” is a highly anticipated market event since Russell Indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for active investment strategies. Approximately $10.6 trillion in assets are benchmarked against Russell’s US indexes. Russell Indexes are part of FTSE Russell, a leading global index provider. For more information on the Russell Microcap^® Index and the Russell indexes reconstitution, go to the “Russell Reconstitution” section on the .

About Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Adial Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for the treatment and prevention of addiction and related disorders. The Company’s lead investigational new drug product, AD04, is a genetically targeted, serotonin-3 receptor antagonist, therapeutic agent for the treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and is currently being investigated in the Company’s landmark ONWARD™ pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial for the potential treatment of AUD in subjects with certain target genotypes, which are to be identified using the Company’s proprietary companion diagnostic genetic test. A Phase 2b clinical trial of AD04 for the treatment of AUD showed promising results in reducing frequency of drinking, quantity of drinking and heavy drinking (all with statistical significance), and no overt safety concerns (there were no statistically significant serious adverse events reported). AD04 is also believed to have the potential to treat other addictive disorders such as Opioid Use Disorder, gambling, and obesity, and the Company develops adenosine analogs for the treatment of pain and other disorders. Additional information is available at .

About the Landmark ONWARD™ Pivotal Phase 3 Clinical Trial

The ONWARD trial is a 24-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group, Phase 3 clinical study to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of AD04 in patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and selected polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter and receptor genes. Patients are genetically screened prior to enrollment in the ONWARD trial so that only genetically positive patients are enrolled. The primary endpoint for analysis of efficacy is the change from baseline in the monthly number of heavy drinking days during the last 8 weeks of the 24-week treatment period. ONWARD is currently being conducted in 25 clinical sites in seven countries in Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe (Sweden, Finland, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria and Croatia). The principal investigator is Professor Hannu E.R. Alho, Emeritus Professor of Addiction Medicine at the University of Helsinki.

About FTSE Russell

FTSE Russell is a global index leader that provides innovative benchmarking, analytics and data solutions for investors worldwide. FTSE Russell calculates thousands of indexes that measure and benchmark markets and asset classes in more than 70 countries, covering 98% of the investable market globally.

FTSE Russell index expertise and products are used extensively by institutional and retail investors globally. Approximately $17.9 trillion is currently benchmarked to FTSE Russell indexes. For over 30 years, leading asset owners, asset managers, ETF providers and investment banks have chosen FTSE Russell indexes to benchmark their investment performance and create ETFs, structured products and index-based derivatives.

A core set of universal principles guides FTSE Russell index design and management: a transparent rules-based methodology is informed by independent committees of leading market participants. FTSE Russell is focused on applying the highest industry standards in index design and governance and embraces the IOSCO Principles. FTSE Russell is also focused on index innovation and customer partnerships as it seeks to enhance the breadth, depth and reach of its offering.

FTSE Russell is wholly owned by London Stock Exchange Group.

For more information, visit .

Forward Looking Statements

This communication contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. Such statements are based upon various facts and derived utilizing numerous important assumptions and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Statements preceded by, followed by or that otherwise include the words "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "projects," "estimates," "plans" and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "should," "would," "may" and "could" are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts, although not all forward-looking statements include the foregoing. The forward-looking statements include statements regarding the inclusion in the Russell Microcap Index reflecting the progress we are making to increase shareholder value by advancing our lead investigational new drug product, AD04, through our ONWARD™ Phase 3 trial for the treatment of alcohol use disorder, the inclusion in the Russell Microcap Index helping improve awareness, liquidity, and exposure within the global community of institutional investors and the potential of AD04 to treat other addictive disorders such as opioid use disorder, gambling, and obesity. Any forward-looking statements included herein reflect our current views, and they involve certain risks and uncertainties, including, among others, impact of the inclusion in the Russell Microcap Index, our ability to enroll patients within the timelines anticipated and complete clinical trials on time and achieve desired results and benefits as expected, the ability of AD04 to treat other addictive disorders such as opioid use disorder, gambling, and obesity, our ability to obtain regulatory approvals for commercialization of product candidates or to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements, regulatory limitations relating to our ability to promote or commercialize our product candidates for specific indications, acceptance of its product candidates in the marketplace and the successful development, marketing or sale of products, our ability to leverage the acquisition of Purnovate and our other expansion plans, our ability to maintain our license agreements, the continued maintenance and growth of our patent estate, our ability to establish and maintain collaborations, our ability to obtain or maintain the capital or grants necessary to fund its research and development activities, and our ability to retain our key employees or maintain our Nasdaq listing. These risks should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read together with the other cautionary statement included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was initially made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, unless required by law.

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