American College of Cardiology Conference Features MBI's OPTISON; 20 OPTISON Abstracts Presented At Annual Conference.

Business Editors/Health and Medical Writers

SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--March 13, 2000

Molecular Biosystems Inc. (OTCBB:MBIO) and Palatin Technologies Inc.(AMEX:PTN) today announced that OPTISON is being featured in more than 20 abstracts at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in Anaheim, Calif. this week.

Among the many studies presented were two studies involving 200 patients at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville and 123 patients at the University of Texas, Southwestern. These studies compared OPTISON Myocardial Contrast Echocardiography to nuclear SPECT imaging during pharmacologic stress testing. Investigators found agreement rates between these two imaging techniques of 82% and 80%, respectively. The authors concluded that OPTISON Stress Echo can reliably detect perfusion abnormalities with results comparable to current nuclear imaging techniques.

In a separate publication from the February 2000 issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology, the official journal of the ACC, Dr. John P. Reilly and coworkers at the New York University School of Medicine reported on the use of OPTISON Echo to clarify uninterpretable wall motion in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. The authors studied 70 randomly selected ICU patients with standard echo, new harmonic technology without contrast, and harmonic technology with OPTISON. They found highly statistically significant improvement in wall motion analysis with OPTISON over the two non-contrast techniques and concluded that contrast echocardiography should be used in all ICU patients with suboptimal echocardiograms.

Commenting on the results of these studies, MBI's Executive Vice President, Howard Dittrich, said, "We are very pleased with the large number and high quality of the abstracts on OPTISON presented at the ACC, as well as the peer review journal article on everyday use of OPTISON. This confirms the growing acceptance of this cutting edge technology."

MBI and Palatin Technologies Inc. announced on Nov. 12, 1999 that the Boards of Directors of both companies have approved a definitive agreement to merge the two companies to create a stronger company with a broader product offering and a robust product pipeline. The combined company will keep the Palatin name and be headquartered in Princeton.

Palatin's Chief Executive Officer, Edward Quilty, stated, "Continued confirmation of the effectiveness of OPTISON supports the reason for our merger--the creation of stockholder value through a diversified and complementary array of products."

Molecular Biosystems is a world leader in developing contrast agents for diagnostic imaging. Its innovative product, OPTISON, improves the diagnosis of heart disease through clearer ultrasound images.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that could result in a materially different outcome are: the failure of OPTISON to be approved for a myocardial perfusion indication either in the U.S. or other markets; the failure to close the merger between Palatin and MBI; and other risk factors reported from time to time in MBI's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For More Information on Palatin, Visit its Web site: www.palatin.com.

For More Information on Molecular Biosystems by Fax, Dial 888/329-4007, or Visit its Web site: www.mobi.com.