AVRX Avalon Pharmaceuticals (MM)

Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVRX), today announced, in compliance with NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 4350(b)(1)(B), that the independent audit report included in the Company�s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007 contained an unqualified audit opinion from its independent public accounting firm, Ernst & Young LLP, which included a �going concern� explanatory statement. This disclosure is required under NASDAQ rules and does not represent any change to the Company�s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 which was filed on March 31, 2008 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About Avalon Pharmaceuticals Avalon is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of first-in-class cancer therapeutics. Avalon�s lead product candidate, AVN944,�an IMPDH inhibitor, is in Phase II clinical development. Avalon also has preclinical programs to develop inhibitors of the Beta-catenin and Aurora/Centrosome pathways,�discovery programs�for�inhibitors of�the Survivin�and Myc�pathways and partnerships with Merck, AstraZeneca/MedImmune, ChemDiv, Medarex, and Novartis. AvalonRx� is the Company�s proprietary platform�which is based on�large-scale�biomarker identification and monitoring, used to discover and develop therapeutics for pathways that have historically been characterized as "undruggable." Avalon is headquartered in Germantown, MD.