Avitar Hires Vice President of Sales to Spearhead Company's Expected Growth to Meet Increased Demand

December 05, 2001

CANTON, Mass., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Avitar, Inc. (Amex: - ) today announced that it has hired Douglas Marcotte for the position of Vice President of Sales. Marcotte recently joined Avitar to assist in the implementation and management of the Quest Diagnostics partnership. He will assume the role of Vice President of Sales effective January 1, 2002.

Previous to joining Avitar, Marcotte worked at Quest Diagnostics as Sales Vice President, East Region where he was responsible for over $900 million in revenue and managed a 265-person sales force covering 14 states and five business units. Marcotte is a 27-year sales veteran of the health care industry, where he held increasingly successful and responsible positions for multi-million dollar sales divisions at various large companies. Prior to being Sales Vice President of the East Region for Quest, he was the company's Regional Sales Director of the Mid-Atlantic for two years. From 1995 to 1999, he was a Regional Sales Director for both the Mid-Atlantic and New York areas at Smithkline Beecham Clinical Labs, which was acquired by Quest in 1999. Before that, he also held executive vice president positions in sales, management and operations at National Health Laboratories, Metpath, Inc., and Upjohn Laboratory Procedures.

``We are very pleased that Doug is joining Avitar, where we expect his experience and impressive success at growing sales will take Avitar to the next level to meet the dramatically increasing demand for our substance abuse products,'' said Peter P. Phildius, Avitar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. ``We also anticipate that Doug's record of achievement at Quest will strengthen the relationship between our two companies as we jointly pursue the tremendous market opportunity currently before us.''

On October 30, 2001, Quest and Avitar announced an agreement under which Quest will distribute Avitar's ORALscreen(TM) tests to detect drugs-of-abuse. Quest is the nation's leading provider of clinical diagnostic and drugs-of- abuse testing, information and services. Each year Quest Diagnostics performs over 8 million drugs-of-abuse tests for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and sports authorities.

ABOUT AVITAR

Avitar, Inc. (Amex: - ) headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, is a diagnostics company that develops, manufactures and markets innovative and proprietary medical devices in two major areas: the oral fluid drugs-of-abuse market and the disease & clinical testing market. 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. 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. In the $20 billion disease & clinical testing market, Avitar is currently developing products that will address the conditions of Lyme disease, influenza and diabetes, as well as pregnancy. 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.