Board of Directors

John K. A. Prendergast, Ph.D., has been a director of the company since July 1996. Dr. Prendergast has served as President and principal of Summercloud Bay, Inc., a biotechnology-consulting firm, since 1993. He is a co-founder and a member of the board of directors of Avigen, Inc. and Palatin Technologies, Inc. as well as Lead Director of MediciNova, Inc. He also serves as the Executive Chairman of Antyra, Inc., a private company located in Edison, NJ. From October 1991 through December 1996, Dr. Prendergast was a Managing Director of The Castle Group Ltd. Dr. Prendergast received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and a C.S.S. in Administration and Management from Harvard University. In November 2003, Dr. Prendergast was named Chairman of the Board of the company.

Francois R. Martelet, M.D., joined the company in July 07 as a Board Member and in December 07 as CEO. He is a senior pharmaceutical executive with over 17 years of international experience with a focus on oncology. Dr. Martelet's most recent industry experience was with Merck & Co., where he served as Vice-President and Global Franchise Head, Oncology in charge of late stage development as well as commercialization matters. Prior to that, Dr. Martelet was the Regional Pharma Head, Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa for Novartis Pharma, AG. Dr. Martelet has also served in various senior officer positions within various units of Novartis Pharmaceutical, including leading the Oncology Business Units in Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Novartis, Dr. Martelet served in various oncology-related capacities commercial related with Schering-Plough International, Eli Lilly Corporation and F. Hoffman-la Roche, AG. Dr. Martelet brings to the management of AVAX more than 17 years of extensive international experience, gained both at the corporate and operational level, within these leading pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Martelet received a Doctorate in Medicine with distinction and a Pharmaceutical Marketing Master's Degree in Business from Dijon University, France. He also holds a degree in Legal Medicine from R. Descartes University School of Medicine, Paris.

Edson D. de Castro has been a director of the company since October 1993. Since 1990, Mr. de Castro has been consulting for companies and participating as a member of certain Boards of Directors. Mr. de Castro was one of five co-founders of Data General Corporation in 1968 for which, from 1968 to 1989, he served as its President and Chief Executive Officer, and from 1989 to 1990, he served as its Chairman of the board of directors. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. de Castro was the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the board of directors of Xenometrix, Inc. Mr. de Castro was a founder and Executive Committee Member of the Massachusetts High Tech Council. Mr. de Castro is a Trustee of Boston University. Mr. de Castro received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Lowell in 1960.

Andrew W. Dahl, Sc.D., has been a director of the company since September 1999. Since May 2007, Dr. Dahl has served as Chief Innovation Officer of Fairview Health Services, a $2.5 Billion nonprofit health organization, that is a clinical arm of the University of Minnesota. Dahl served as the Vice President of Consumer Driven Health and Human Resources of Alegent Health, a nonprofit, multi-hospital and health system headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. He served as President and CEO of Evolution Benefits, a Division of Evolution Health, LLC, from July 2000 through February 2005. From July 1994 through December 1999, Dr. Dahl served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of HealthNet, Inc. From July 1990 through March 1994, Dr. Dahl served as President and Chief Executive Officer of IVF America, Inc. (now known as IntegraMed America), where he was instrumental in taking the corporation public. Dr. Dahl also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of St. John Health and Hospital Corporation in Detroit, a university-affiliated medical center, and was Vice President for Development of the Hospital Corporation of America, Management Company. Dr. Dahl received his Sc.D. from The Johns Hopkins University and a M.P.A. from Cornell University. Dr. Dahl is also a fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives.

Carl Spana, Ph.D., has been a director of the company since September 1995 and was our Interim President from August 1995 to June 15, 1996. Dr. Spana is a co-founder of Palatin Technologies, Inc. and has been its president and chief executive officer since June 2000. He has been a director of Palatin since June 1996 and has been a director of RhoMed Incorporated since July 1995. Dr. Spana has served Palatin in other executive capacities prior to June 2000. Dr. Spana was vice president of Paramount Capital Investments, LLC, a biotechnology and biopharmaceutical merchant banking firm, and of The Castle Group Ltd., a medical venture capital firm. Through his work at Paramount Capital Investments and Castle Group, Dr. Spana co-founded and acquired several private biotechnology firms. From July 1991 to June 1993, Dr. Spana was a Research Associate at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was involved in scientific research in the field of immunology. Dr. Spana received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from The Johns Hopkins University and his B.S. in biochemistry from Rutgers University.

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