Avaxia Biologic's Barbara Fox Named one of Mass High Tech's Women to Watch in 2012

LEXINGTON, Mass., March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Avaxia Biologics, Inc., a privately-held biotech company using its proprietary platform technology to develop orally-active antibody therapeutics for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, is proud to announce that Dr. Barbara Fox, its founder and CEO, has been was named one of Mass High Tech's Women to Watch in 2012.  Mass High Tech's 9th annual Women to Watch awards recognize women in the fields of technology and life sciences, "who are go-getters, hardworking, inspirational and motivational to their peers."

Dr. David Poorvin, member of the Board of Directors of Avaxia, commented, "We are truly proud of this recognition of Dr. Fox's achievements.  She has been instrumental in building Avaxia Biologics from a creative idea into a developmental biotech company that will be testing its first drug candidate later this year. She is not only an innovative scientist, but also a motivational executive who leads by example.  We are confident that she will continue to have a significant impact on drug development and the biotech communities in Massachusetts for years to come."

Prior to founding Avaxia Biologics, Dr. Fox was the founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Recovery Pharmaceuticals, a company developing and marketing medications for the treatment of addiction. Prior to founding Recovery Pharmaceuticals in 1998, she was Vice President, Immunology at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp. She joined ImmuLogic in 1993, having served on the faculty of the University Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, as Associate Professor of Medicine with tenure in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Dept. of Medicine. Dr. Fox received her BA in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT. Dr. Fox trained as a post-doc in cellular immunology at the NIH.

Mass High Tech will honor Dr. Fox and 19 other awardees at an awards breakfast on Friday, May 11, 2012 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.

About Avaxia Biologics, Inc.: Avaxia Biologics is a development-stage company developing oral antibody therapeutics that act locally within the gastrointestinal tract. The antibodies are designed to treat both diseases of the GI tract and metabolic diseases. Using its proprietary antibody platform, Avaxia is developing products for inflammatory bowel disease, GI acute radiation syndrome, celiac disease, oral mucositis, diabetes and obesity.

SOURCE Avaxia Biologics, Inc.