ABS heads into the new millennium having established the groundwork to make the transition to new commercial prosperity. As new clinical data validate the company's diagnostic program and bring it to the point of bearing fruit, ABS stockholders would be justified in looking confidently to a future with significant investor returns.

The preceding year has also seen considerable success in ABS' neuroscience program, which is the second prong in the company's ongoing strategy. ABS-103 is showing great promise as a candidate for replacing valproic acid (valproate), one of the most widely prescribed medicines in the world for the treatment of epilepsy and the mania associated with bipolar (manic) depression as well as preventing the onset of migraine headaches. Each year, valproate generates more than $1 billion in revenue. ABS-103 was engineered to have the same efficacy as valproate, but without the dangerous side effects of that widely prescribed drug. The single isomer refined version of ABS-103 has shown itself in clinical trials to be less toxic yet, and has become the company's preferred candidate for imminent licensing to a large pharmaceutical company.

ABS-205, another promising candidate in the neuroscience program, is offering the world new hope for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Shown in research to produce effects similar to the nerve growth factor NGF, ABS-205 can help maintain pathways to the brain, and cross the blood-brain barrier -- both essential features in treating Alzheimer's and other neurological conditions.