OFFICIAL! AVN's -- Stock Picks

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Date Posted: 08:41:44 08/15/00 Tue
Author: AVN is the NEW MOUSE ON THE BLOCK!
Subject: OFFICIAL! AVN's

IT's OFFICIAL! NEWS JUST OUT! AVN has formed "XENEREX". THIS state of the art technology will compete with High Flying ABGX & MEDX!

Avanir Pharmaceuticals to Commercialize Human Monoclonal Antibody
Technology

Subsidiary - Xenerex Biosciences - Formed to Exploit Platform Technology

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Avanir Pharmaceuticals (Amex: AVN - news), today announced the formation of Xenerex Biosciences, a wholly owned
subsidiary, to commercialize a platform technology to generate completely human antibodies for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Xenerex plans to partner
with companies to generate completely human antibodies to their proprietary disease targets, as well as to produce monoclonal antibodies to its own targets. Avanir's
vice president of commercial development, J. David Hansen, has been named president and chief operating officer of the new subsidiary.

``The creation of Xenerex allows us to focus on the development and commercialization of our antibody technology with the objective of increasing shareholder
value,'' said Gerald J. Yakatan, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Avanir Pharmaceuticals. ``We expect Xenerex to play an important role in the future
growth of Avanir.''

The Xenerex technology produces human monoclonal antibodies indistinguishable from antibodies isolated directly from humans. What differentiates the Xenerex
technology from other methods used to generate human antibodies is its ability to utilize human immune system cells to generate human antibodies in a mouse
deficient in its own immune system. The platform technology makes use of many unique in-vivo cellular interactions in the human immune system that result in
antibodies of high specificity and affinity.

``We believe our technology may have inherent advantages that could allow us to compete effectively with other human antibody generation technologies that have
already shown significant commercial potential,'' said J. David Hansen. ``Using human cells to produce human antibodies may have advantages over other mouse
antibody generation technologies, because our technology makes available all the genetic information for the entire library of antibodies. The Xenerex model is also
unique in that it allows for the inclusion of genetic information from multiple individuals, thus, maximizing genetic diversity in the antibody generation effort. This is in
contrast to the transgenic mouse model currently used by two other companies, that has used only a subset of genetic information from a single genetic configuration.

``Collaborating with companies to generate human antibodies to their proprietary disease targets is one of Xenerex's highest priorities,'' Mr. Hansen continued. ``We
also intend to establish partnerships with companies in both the genomics and proteomics areas. There are literally thousands of new targets being identified by
companies involved in this effort and many of these targets will use monoclonal antibodies as the first approach to developing diagnostic or therapeutic applications.''

Xenerex Biosciences's intellectual property platform resides in a series of patents to generate completely human antibodies of high affinity and specificity to a wide
array of antigenic disease targets or human proteins. The two original patents (U.S. patent 5,698,767 and U.S. patent 5,476,996) are based on the pioneering work
of Donald Mosier, M.D., Ph.D. and current Member of the Department of Immunology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. These patents claim
the grafting of human lymphoid cells into Severe Combined Immmunodeficient (SCID) mice, for the purpose of studying various aspects of the human immune
system outside the human body as well as the generation of completely human antibodies. These patents were extended by U.S. Patent 5,958,765, based on the
work of Dr. Phillip Morrow, a founding scientist at Xenerex, and co-workers, that claim methods for generating human monoclonal antibodies using improved human
cell sources and immunization procedures.

``This is an optimal time for exploiting this particular platform technology,'' noted Mr. Hansen. ``The number and pace of therapeutic antibodies receiving FDA
approval has rapidly grown in the last three years, accounting for substantial worldwide sales. The market expects that companies with these types of technologies
will make significant contributions to the flow of new products from the biopharmaceutical industry over the next decade.''

To accelerate the start-up of the new company, Avanir has allocated facilities including laboratory and office space, scientists, management, infrastructure, and
financial support to Xenerex. On September 1, 2000, Avanir and Xenerex will move into new facilities that will allow Xenerex to begin operations.

Avanir Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes novel therapeutic products for the treatment of chronic diseases.
Avanir's lead product, docosanol 10% cream, was recently approved for marketing by the FDA. The company's product development pipeline includes a recently
in-licensed drug product for the treatment of multiple central nervous system disorders, including emotional lability, neuropathic pain and chronic cough. Also, the
company has a drug discovery program in the advanced pre-clinical stage of development for the treatment of the underlying biological causes of allergy and asthma.

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