Avitar Promotes Michael DeFeo to New Post of VP of Marketing and Business Development To Lead Company's Expansion into $20 Billion In-Vitro Diagnostics Market

December 11, 2001

CANTON, Mass., Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Avitar, Inc. (Amex: - ) today announced that it has promoted Michael J. DeFeo to the new position of Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. DeFeo, who has worked in the diagnostics industry for the past 10 years, will lead Avitar's expansion into the $20 billion market for in-vitro diagnostics using its oral fluid technology, while continuing to help grow Avitar's current robust business in oral fluid testing for drugs of abuse.

Since joining Avitar in 1999, DeFeo has held various positions in sales and marketing, which include helping to create and grow the company's current direct sales force, as well as successfully launching award-winning campaigns to introduce various Avitar products now on the market.

Prior to coming to Avitar, DeFeo held positions with responsibility for multi-million dollar budgets and campaigns in sales, marketing and product development at Elan Diagnostics, Chiron Diagnostics, Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, Bio-Rad Laboratories, and Moore Products Company. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Onsite Testing Association (NOTA), an industry association focused on policy development for the rapid, onsite drug testing industry. DeFeo is also a member of the Drug, Alcohol, Testing Industry Association and the American Association of Clinical Chemistry. He holds an MBA in Marketing from St. Joseph's University and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Temple University, both in Philadelphia.

``We expect that with Mike leading our efforts, Avitar's revolutionary oral fluid technology will be met in the enormous in-vitro diagnostics market with the same tremendous success that it has been greeted with in the drugs-of- abuse marketplace,'' said Peter P. Phildius, Avitar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. ``Mike's promotion is the direct result of the contributions he has made toward Avitar increasing our revenue opportunities during the past year, and we anticipate that success will continue as we expand into the large and lucrative in-vitro diagnostics market.''

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.