Avitar Retains Health Care Consulting Firm To Help Guide Expansion into $20 Billion In-Vitro Diagnostics Market

January 16, 2002

CANTON, Mass., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Avitar, Inc. (Amex: - ) today announced that it has retained the consulting firm of Health Advances, LLC of Weston, Mass. to help guide Avitar's expansion into the $20 billion in-vitro diagnostics market. Using the knowledge and experience acquired during the successful development and commercialization of the ORALscreen(TM) substance abuse products, Avitar will be expanding its technology to launch innovative clinical diagnostic products for the In-Vitro Diagnostics market. Health Advances has extensive experience with assisting companies in the development of strategies for this business.

``Given our success in launching the world's first oral fluid-based drugs- of-abuse test, we believe that developing applications for the multi-billion dollar In-Vitro Diagnostics market is a natural evolution for Avitar,'' said Peter P. Phildius, Avitar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. ``Our initial research shows that there is a large and broad demand for rapid, easy to use, oral fluid-based diagnostics. With its expertise, we believe that Health Advances is the right company to help guide us to the best opportunities. We are committed to making Avitar a significant industry force in this large market.''

Health Advances is a consulting practice that focuses on assisting clients with new medical technologies and services to reach attractive and attainable target markets. The organization is comprised of a team of industry professionals with business, science and clinical backgrounds, who combine with the nation's top undergraduate and graduate schools, to assess the commercial potential of new technologies and services to develop pragmatic and efficient global sales and marketing strategies. Health Advances' clients include companies from the biotech, pharmaceutical, device and diagnostic arena, as well as providers, inventors and investors. For its clients, Health Advances offers consulting expertise on articulating business models in a business plan to steer operations and/or raise capital, prioritizing client Research & Development projects, investing in appropriate sales and marketing infrastructures, focusing clinical trials on the optimal patient subsets and endpoints, forging partnerships and alliances, and consummating equity investments and mergers & acquisitions.

The affiliation with Health Resources follows Avitar's announcement recently that it had promoted Michael J. DeFeo to the new position of Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, to lead Avitar's expansion into the 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 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?, 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.

Safe Harbor Statement. 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. In view of such risks and uncertainties, the Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward looking statements.