Ma/avalon.pr 01-509

Contact: Ed Grimm, Department of Economic Development 240-777-2025
Kenneth C. Carter, Ph.D., President & CEO
Avalon Pharmaceuticals
301-556-1000
Noonan/Russo Communications, Inc.
Miriam Weber, 212-696-4455, ext.352
For Immediate Release: December 18, 2001

County officials today congratulated Gaithersburg-based Avalon Pharmaceuticals on their $70M in Series B financing. The County's Department of Economic Development has worked with and supported Dr. Kenneth Carter, president and chief executive officer and his team at Avalon since its earliest days.

"We are pleased to see the growth Avalon is experiencing," said County Executive Douglas M. Duncan. "We take great pride in seeing a company come this far this fast from its first days in our incubator program. We hope to continue our relationship with Avalon Pharmaceuticals in the future and see the company grow into a leader in drug discovery."

"The County provided critical early support to the Company, including providing space in the Incubator," said Carter. "They have provided important resources and created a climate for success for emerging biotechnology companies."

At a time when laboratory space for emerging technology companies was at a premium, Montgomery County helped facilitate biotechnology development by creating an Incubator with lab suites at 9700 Great Seneca Highway in Gaithersburg. This facility has enabled many start-ups to evolve into viable research entities, affording them the opportunity to expand cutting-edge ideas into tangible business models.

Avalon first set up in three adjacent laboratories within the Incubator, with more than 2,100 square feet of lab space. They were able to conduct business in a cost-effective manner by utilizing common areas the Incubator offered, such as a shared reception area and multiple conference rooms, while taking advantage of the network infrastructure for computers, phones and office support systems.

The County also assisted Avalon with relocation to the company's current space at 19 Firstfield Road in Gaithersburg.

The Department of Economic Development is dedicated to job creation, retention, and tax base enhancements for growing industries and small business, and the overall well being of Montgomery County, Maryland.

Avalon Pharmaceuticals (www.avalonrx.com) is a next-generation genomics-based company utilizing unique and proprietary methods to improve and accelerate the discovery of small molecule drugs directly from genomics data. Through its comprehensive approach, Avalon can identify gene expression markers for disease activity and directly screen for drug effects on these in complex biological systems. The company is thus able to rapidly identify small molecule drug candidates and to optimize these for highly disease specific activity, thereby producing very high quality lead compounds much faster than traditional target based drug discovery. Currently, Avalon is focusing its efforts on identifying therapeutics with novel mechanisms of actions that counteracts or arrest the malignant transformation of cancer cells.

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