Argus Health Products Obtains the Rights to Bio-Quant Antimicrobial Line of Products.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

HORSHAM, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 2003

ARGUS HEALTH PRODUCTS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Argus International, Inc., announced today that it has signed a definitive license agreement with Bio-Quant, Inc. for worldwide exclusive rights to Bio-Quant's line of anti-microbial products, including the Siwak(TM) Mouthwash.

The market potential for Bio-Quant's products in development exceeds $2 billion. Bio-Quant's lead technology is a new proprietary antimicrobial natural product, discovered by Bio-Quant by high throughput screening of its large natural product library. The active compound, BQNT-501, exhibits a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Bio-Quant has a number of products ready to enter the market utilizing BQNT-501 as the active ingredient for periodontal disease, fungal infections, mucositis and otitis. Siwak(TM) Mouthwash, for treating gingivitis, is expected to reach the market during the first quarter of 2004. Periodontal disease is a chronic, progressive bacterial infection of the gums, the major cause of adult tooth loss. It is one of the most prevalent chronic infections and is directly related to aging - over 70% of the population over the age of 45 suffers from the disease. It currently affects more than 70 million Americans.

Bio-Quant is also developing an oral rinse utilizing BQNT-501 to treat oral candidiasis, a fungal infection prevalent in patients with compromised immune systems, primarily HIV/AIDS and cancer patients. The oral candidiasis product will be positioned as first-line therapy for oral fungal infections, with an estimated market potential of $350 million. Another indication for which BQNT-501 is being developed is oral mucositis, a painful condition that affects patients undergoing aggressive cancer therapy. If left untreated, mucositis can limit the amount of chemotherapy or radiation treatment the patient can tolerate. The mucositis indication addresses the estimated 160,000 cancer patients receiving high dose chemotherapy or radiation therapy in the U.S. and Europe.

Commenting on the agreement, Mildred S. Christian, Ph.D., President and Chairman of Argus, stated "This agreement could significantly increase our revenues and be an important addition to our healthcare line of products. I believe that adding Bio-Quant's antimicrobial line of products places the Company in a strong position to develop a significant franchise in infectious disease management. This addition to our current health- and youth-sustaining methodologies should allow us to increase our market penetration and supply important new natural products to the rapidly growing population concerned with health and vigor maintenance."

"We're delighted to work with Argus, and we believe that the existing synergies between Bio-Quant and Argus offer an excellent opportunity for growth, because Argus has extensive distribution and marketing contacts and channels," stated Bassam Damaj, Ph.D., President and CEO of Bio-Quant.

Dr. Damaj added, "Under the terms of the agreement, Argus will have a 15-year ongoing royalty obligation to Bio-Quant, in addition to an up-front licensing payment followed by four yearly payments."

About Argus Health Products, LLC 

Argus Health Products, LLC, focuses on the development and distribution of a line of preventive and maintenance health care products for use in both the health care professional and OTC markets. With offices in Horsham, Pennsylvania and Franklin, Louisiana, it provides skin care and rejuvenation products, including peels for professional use by Dermatologists and other health care professionals, and less potent peel formulations, as well as hydrators and sunscreens, for use and distribution by Spas. It also has a line of OTC products that includes topical analgesics and skin care products. For more information, visit Argus Health Product's web site at www.argushealthproducts.com.

About Bio-Quant, Inc.

Bio-Quant translates scientific discoveries into safer, more effective topical treatments for people with immune, inflammatory, and other life threatening diseases. Armed with a proprietary natural product chemical library, an in-house developed drug screening platform, and state-of-the-art translational research tools, the Company has developed a robust revenue-generating product pipeline. In addition, the Company has novel types of disease diagnosis called "Multiplex Technologies" that permit the simultaneous detection of multiple diseases, at the same time and from the same sample, in blood, urine and tissues. For more information, visit Bio-Quant's web site at www.bio-quant.com.

When used anywhere in this document, the words "expects", "believes", "anticipates", "estimates" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements herein may include statements addressing future financial and operating results of Bio-Quant and the timing, benefits and other aspects of the proposed license. Bio-Quant has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations about future events. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the successful implementation of Bio-Quant's strategic plans, the acceptance of new products, the obsolescence of existing products, the resolution of existing and potential future patent issues. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from results expressed or implied by forward-looking statements contained in this document. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this document. Bio-Quant disclaims any undertaking to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.