ADVISORY/Seth Yakatan of Katan Associates International to Speak at Los Angeles Venture Association Meeting.

Business Editors

ADVISORY...for Tuesday (May 11)

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 2004

Seth Yakatan, Partner, Katan Associates International (KAI), will be a featured speaker at the Los Angeles Venture Association's breakfast meeting on Tuesday, May 11, 2004: "Venture Capital from the Shores of the Mediterranean to the Shores of the Pacific--Expanding Opportunities between Israel and California."

Mr. Yakatan has experience as a corporate finance professional in the United States as well as experience in venture-capital investing as an analyst with Ventana Growth Funds and Sureste Venture Management. Most recently, Mr. Yakatan has worked with Union Bank of California, N.A., where he completed debt financing in excess of several billion dollars, while placing subordinated debt and private equity into several portfolio companies on behalf of the bank. Mr. Yakatan earned an MBA degree in Finance at the University of California/Irvine.

"Our meeting will include accomplished investors who will discuss the current VC market for investment between Israel and California--through the eyes of California VCs, Israeli VCs, and Israeli companies doing business in California," said Mr. Yakatan. "In addition, we will identify some of the hot companies to watch, as well as discuss how to attract investment dollars for Israel/California ventures from both California- and Israeli-based VCs."

WHAT:   Venture Capital from the Shores of the Mediterranean to the
        Shores of the Pacific--Expanding Opportunities between Israel
        and California

WHERE:  The Regency Club, 10900 Wilshire Blvd., 17th Fl., Los Angeles

WHEN:   Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 7:00 A.M. PDT

HOST:   Los Angeles Venture Association ("LAVA")

To register for this meeting, or for further information, visit www.lava.org/index.html

Katan Associates International (www.katanassociates.com) is a global advisory organization that provides capitalization strategies and a broad range of business consultancy services to life science enterprises. KAI has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Melbourne (Australia) and Tel Aviv (Israel).