Avalon Pharmaceuticals Receives Audit Opinion Containing Going Concern Statement

  
    
  
  
    
      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.