[ELITE PHARMACEUTICALS INC. LOGO]

                    ELITE PHARMACEUTICALS ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT
               FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CONTROLLED RELEASE PRODUCT

NORTHVALE,  N.J., June 28 -- Elite  Pharmaceuticals,  Inc. (Amex: ELI) announced
that it has entered into a product development and license agreement with Pliva,
Inc.  (East  Hanover,  NJ), a  subsidiary  of PLIVA d.d.,  a specialty  generics
pharmaceutical   company,  for  a  generic,   controlled  release  drug  product
formulated by Elite. The product is an anti-infective  with a U.S generic market
size of  approximately  $90  million  in 2004 and which had an  approximate  10%
growth  in dose  units  sold in  2004.  A pilot  bioequivalence  study  has been
completed and scale up will begin shortly.  Elite will  manufacture  the product
and Pliva will market and sell the product.  The development  costs will be paid
by Pliva and Elite and the profits will be shared equally.

Bernard Berk, Chairman and CEO of Elite, said, "We are very pleased to have this
relationship  with Pliva Inc., a well known and highly  regarded  company in the
generic drug industry.  This controlled  release product represents another step
in building  our  pipeline  at Elite and is Elite's  third  product  development
agreement this year."

ABOUT ELITE PHARMACEUTICALS

Elite Pharmaceuticals is a specialty  pharmaceutical company principally engaged
in the development of oral, controlled release products.  The Company's strategy
includes  developing  generic versions of controlled  release drug products with
high  barriers  to entry  and  assisting  partner  companies  in the life  cycle
management of products to improve  off-patent drug products.  Elite's technology
is  applicable to develop  delayed,  sustained or targeted  release  capsules or
tablets.  Elite has one product currently being sold commercially and a pipeline
of six drug products  under  development in the  therapeutic  areas that include
pain management,  allergy,  cardiovascular and infection. The addressable market
for Elite's current  pipeline of products  exceeds $6 billion.  Elite also has a
GMP and DEA registered  facility for research,  development,  and  manufacturing
located in Northvale, NJ.

ABOUT PLIVA

With over 80 years of experience in the  pharmaceuticals  arena,  PLIVA is now a
global  pharmaceutical  company  focused  on  the  development,  production  and
distribution of generics and specialty  pharmaceutical  products with operations
in the US,  CEE and  Western  Europe.  Since its  listing  on the  London  Stock
Exchange in 1996, PLIVA has established a fully internationalized business, with
the  majority of revenues  now  realized on Western  markets.

This news release contains forward-looking  statements,  including those related
to the preliminary  nature of the clinical program results and the potential for
further  product  development,  that involve  known and unknown  risks,  delays,
uncertainties  and other factors not under the control of Elite or Pliva,  which
may cause actual  results,  performance or  achievements  of the companies to be
materially different from the results, performance or other expectations implied
by these forward-looking  statements. In particular,  because substantial future
testing will be required prior to approval,  the results described above may not
be supported by additional  data or by the results of subsequent  trials.  These
risks and other  factors,  including the timing or results of pending and future
clinical  trials,  regulatory  reviews  and  approvals  by  the  Food  and  Drug
Administration  and other  regulatory  authorities,  and  intellectual  property
protections  and  defenses,  are  discussed  in the  Elite's  filings  with  the
Securities  and



Exchange Commission such as the 10K, 10Q and 8K reports. The companies undertake
no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE ELITE PHARMACEUTICALS
WEB SITE: http://www.elitepharma.com