Protalix Names Sandra Lauterbach Vice President of Sales and Commercial Affairs

Protalix Names Sandra Lauterbach Vice President of Sales and Commercial Affairs

CARMIEL, Israel, December 17, 2009 Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE-Amex: PLX) today

announced the appointment of Sandra Lauterbach to Vice President, Sales and Commercial Affairs. In

this newly created, U.S. based position, Ms. Lauterbach will be responsible for all commercial

activities, including pre-launch and launch activities for taliglucerase alfa in accordance with

the collaboration agreement between the Company and Pfizer Inc., as well as any other products that

emerge from the Company s pipeline. Ms. Lauterbach brings over 20 years of expertise in U.S. and

global marketing, commercial strategy, and product development for pharmaceutical and biotechnology

companies. Prior to joining the Company, she served as Vice President of Marketing, Endocrinology

at EMD Serono and Senior Director, Global Marketing for Fabrazyme at Genzyme Corporation.

We are delighted to have someone with Sandra s sales and commercial experience join Protalix,

said Dr. David Aviezer, the Company s President and Chief Executive Officer. Her experience and

track record with pre-launch and launch activities, particularly in the rare genetic disease space,

will be a tremendous asset to our company as we transition from a research and development

organization to a fully integrated biotechnology company.

Ms. Lauterbach s career includes more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the

healthcare industry. As Vice President of Marketing, Endocrinology at EMD Serono, she developed,

executed, and managed the national marketing strategies for Saizen , Gonal-f and Serostim . Prior

to her tenure at Serono, Ms. Lauterbach spent four years at Genzyme leading the international

product team for Fabrazyme, which produced double-digit annual growth for three straight years.

Her background also includes several years with Immune Mediated Disease, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Incorporated, Amgen Inc. and Merck Human Health.

Ms. Lauterbach received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from the University of

Wisconsin and her Masters in Business Administration from the University of South Florida.

Protalix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of

proprietary recombinant therapeutic proteins expressed through its proprietary plant cell based

expression system. Protalix s ProCellEx presents a proprietary method for the expression of

recombinant proteins that Protalix believes will allow for the cost-effective, industrial-scale

production of recombinant therapeutic proteins in an environment free of mammalian components and

viruses. Protalix is also advancing additional recombinant biopharmaceutical drug development

programs. Taliglucerase alfa is an enzyme replacement therapy in development under a Special

Protocol Assessment with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Gaucher disease.

Safe Harbor Statement:

To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, all such

statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private

Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to known

and unknown risks and

uncertainties that may cause actual future experience and results to differ materially from the

statements made. These statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations as to such

future outcomes. Drug discovery and development involve a high degree of risk. Factors that might

cause material differences include, among others, risks relating to: the successful preclinical

development of our product candidates; the completion of clinical trials; the review process of the

FDA, foreign regulatory bodies and other governmental regulatory bodies, including the FDA s review

of any filings we make in connection with the treatment protocol; delays in the FDA s or other

health regulatory authorities approval of any applications we file or refusals to approve such

filings; refusals by such regulatory authorities to approve the marketing and sale of a drug

product even after acceptance of an application we file for any such drug product; the

identification of lead compounds; the risk that we may fail to satisfy certain conditions relating

to grants we have received from the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel s Ministry of Industry

and Trade which may lead to our being required to refund grants previously received together with

interest and penalties; the risk that the Office of the Chief Scientist may not deliver to us all

of the funds awarded to us; uncertainties related to the ability to attract and retain partners for

our technologies and products under development; and other factors described in our filings with

the Securities and Exchange Commission. Companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology

industries have suffered significant setbacks in advanced or late-stage clinical trials, even after

obtaining promising earlier trial results or in preliminary findings for such clinical trials.

Further, even if favorable testing data is generated by clinical trials of drug products, the FDA

may not accept or approve an NDA filed by a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company for such drug

product. Failure to obtain FDA approval of any of our drug candidates in a timely manner, if at

all, will severely undermine our business and results of operation by reducing our potential

marketable products and our ability to generate corresponding product revenues. Under our approved

treatment protocol, taliglucerase alfa might be provided only to a limited number of patients and

only for a limited time. The FDA s approval of the treatment protocol or the fast track

designation will not have any effect on the FDA s approval of the NDA we filed with respect to

taliglucerase alfa, if any, and the review by the FDA of any data from our Phase III clinical

development programs in connection with the approval of the treatment protocol will not have any

effect on the FDA s subsequent review of our complete Phase III clinical trial data in the future.

The statements in this release are valid only as of the date hereof and we disclaim any obligation

to update this information.

The Trout Group, LLC

Telephone: 646-378-2927

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