Biovest International receives Orphan Drug Designation for its personalized lymphoma vaccine

Biovest International, Inc. (Other OTC: BVTI) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to BiovaxID®, Biovest’s personalized lymphoma vaccine. BiovaxID represents a new class of active immunotherapy and is one of the few select late-stage patient-specific cancer vaccines vying to be among the first to reach market.

With FDA Orphan Drug Status, Biovest has a seven-year period of market exclusivity for BiovaxID upon approval, thereby offering competitive protection from similar drugs of the same class. Orphan Drug Status also provides Biovest with eligibility to receive potential tax credit benefits, potential grant funding for research and development and significantly reduced filing fees for marketing applications. Based on statistically significant Phase III study data demonstrating an extended disease-free survival benefit, Biovest expects to file a Biologic License Application (BLA) with the FDA by approximately mid-year in order to seek U.S. approval of BiovaxID. The Company also expects to file regulatory applications seeking approvals in Europe and Canada.

In other news, Biovest announced that the Company will present at the Biotechnology Showcase to be held in San Francisco next week, running concurrent with the JP Morgan 28^th Annual Healthcare Conference.

If qualified investors or corporate partnering candidates are interested in scheduling a meeting with Biovest in San Francisco, please contact Douglas Calder at 813-864-2558 or [email protected].

According to Biovest’s President, Mr. Samuel S. Duffey, the Biotechnology Showcase kicks off the year with an opportunity to update institutional investors, bankers and analysts as the Company prepares to emerge from reorganization. “We expect to make announcements in the near future that will demonstrate that we have taken full advantage of the reorganization process in restructuring debt and contractual obligations. We anticipate emerging from reorganization in the first part of 2010 with our current shareholder base successfully preserved and with a greatly improved balance sheet, which will enable management to focus on executing our business and drug development plans,” stated, Mr. Duffey.