Avitar Announces New Scientific Advisory Board

Avitar Announces New Scientific Advisory Board

May 22, 2001

CANTON, Mass., May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Avitar, Inc. (Amex: - news) announced today that it has formed a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) comprised of three outside industry experts and four Avitar employees to advise on research and development for developing In-Vitro clinical diagnostics, specifically toward the point-of-care market.

The three outside experts joining the SAB are: James H. Nichols, Ph.D.; James H. Liu, M.D.; and Douglas Granger, Ph.D. They will be serving with the following Avitar personnel: Douglas W. Scott, President and Chief Operating Officer; Michael J. DeFeo, Vice President of Marketing; Carl M. Good III, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Development; and Charles Plate, Ph.D., Director of Research and Development.

``We are honored to have such distinguished scientists join with our personnel to serve on Avitar's Scientific Advisory Board,'' said Peter P. Phildius, Avitar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. ``We look forward to their expertise in helping the company continue its advances using oral fluid in the $20 billion diagnostic testing market, particularly in the areas of Lyme, influenza, pregnancy, and diabetes.''

Dr. Nichols is currently Medical Director of Clinical Chemistry of Baystate Health Systems in Springfield, Massachusetts. He also chairs the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Point-of-Care Testing Division. He has served as Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Associate Director of the Clinical Chemistry Division and Director of Point-of-Care Testing at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and did post-doctoral work at the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Liu is currently Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He also is a member of the Population Research Subcommittee at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for the Department of Health and Human Services. He did a Fellowship at the University of California in San Diego, and has interests in neuroendocrine control of the reproductive function. He received his M.D. degree from Ohio State University, and did his residency at the University of Rochester-Strong Memorial.

Dr. Granger is currently Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health and Human Development at The Pennsylvania State University. He is also a Director of the Behavioral Endocrinology Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. He is developing assays to determine the concentration of hormones, immune markers, and metabolites present in saliva. He received his Ph.D. in psychology and social behavior from the University of California Irvine and did his post-doctoral training in psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California Los Angeles.

About Avitar

Avitar, Inc. (Amex: - news) headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical devices based on proprietary core technologies for two distinctive markets: oral fluid diagnostics and customized polyurethane applications used in the wound dressing industry. Oral fluid diagnostics includes both the drugs-of-abuse testing market estimated to be worth $1.5 billion encompassing the corporate workplace and criminal justice markets and the $20 billion clinical diagnostics market. Avitar's products include ORALscreen(TM), the world's first non-invasive, rapid, onsite oral fluid test for drugs-of-abuse, and HAIRscreen(TM) a laboratory based hair test for detecting long-term drug abuse. Additionally, the company manufactures and markets HYDRASORB(TM), an absorbent topical dressing for moderate to heavy exudating wounds. In 2001, the company formed strategic partnerships with DIPRO Diagnostic Products GmbH, Pinkerton Security Group, and also acquired Texas-based BJR Security Service, a provider of canines trained to detect narcotics, explosives and firearms for markets that include education and the oil and petroleum industry.

For more information, see Avitar's website at avitarinc.com.

This release contains forward looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties including the development and marketing of new applications and other risks that are detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.