EXHIBIT NO. 99.1


  ALTAREX ANNOUNCES PRIVATE PLACEMENT OF SPECIAL WARRANTS FOR UP TO $7 MILLION

WALTHAM, Mass., March 7 /CNW/ -- AltaRex Corp. (AXO.TO, ALXFF.OTC), a developer
of foreign antibodies that activate the immune system to treat cancer, announced
today that it has issued 185.7 Special Warrants as part of an offering of up to
1,000 Special Warrants on a private placement basis. If fully subscribed, the
offering could provide up to C$7 million in capital to the Company (before
expenses of the offering) upon issuance of a receipt for a final prospectus
filed with the Ontario Securities Commission. The actual proceeds realized by
the Company will depend upon the number of Special Warrants issued in the
offering and the price at which the Special Warrants are automatically
converted.

Following the issuance of the receipt for the final prospectus, each Special
Warrant will automatically convert into one Unit consisting of a number of
common shares of the Company, to be determined by a formula based on the five
day volume weighted average trading price of the Company's common shares less
the maximum discount permitted by the rules of the Toronto Stock Exchange, plus
250 Common Share Purchase Warrants. At that time, the investors will be required
to pay to the Company an amount per Special Warrant equal to the number of
common shares into which a Unit will convert multiplied by the discounted volume
weighted average trading price of the Company's common shares referred to above.
Each Common Share Purchase Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one common
share for a period of five years at an exercise price equal to the five day
volume weighted average trading price referred to above. The maximum number of
common shares issuable upon the conversion of the Units and the exercise of the
Purchase Warrants is 8,250,000.

A portion of each investor's maximum committed subscription amount has been, or
will be, deposited in escrow. Such funds will be released to the Company upon
the automatic conversion of the Special Warrants, or, in the event the
conversion does not occur prior to 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on May 5, 2002, to
the investor.

The Company has filed a preliminary prospectus with the Ontario Securities
Commission relating to the distribution of up to 1,000 Units comprising the
underlying common shares and Common Share Purchase Warrants referred to above.

The securities sold in the offering will not be and have not been registered
under the Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United
States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration
requirements.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from the
statements made. For this purpose, any statements that are contained herein that
are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking
statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "believes," "anticipates,"
"plans," "intends," "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not
limited to our need for capital and the risk that the Company can not



raise funds on a timely basis on satisfactory terms or at all, the need to
obtain corporate alliances and the risk that the Company cannot establish
corporate alliances on a timely basis, on satisfactory terms, or at all,
changing market conditions, uncertainties regarding the timely and successful
completion of clinical trials, patient enrollment rates, uncertainty of
pre-clinical, retrospective, early and interim clinical trial results, which may
not be indicative of results that will be obtained in ongoing or future clinical
trials, whether the Company will file for regulatory approval on a timely basis,
uncertainties as to when, if at all, the FDA will accept or approve the
Company's regulatory filings for its products, the need to establish and
scale-up manufacturing processes, uncertainty as to the timely development and
market acceptance of the Company's products, uncertainty as to whether patents
will issue from pending patent applications and, if issued, as to whether such
patents will be sufficiently broad to protect the Company's technology, and
other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Company's filings with the United
States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities authorities.
The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking
statement.

THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE HAS NOT APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED OF THE INFORMATION
CONTAINED HEREIN.

For further information

     Peter Gonze, Operations/Investor Relations, +1-781-672-0138 ext. 1503,
     pgonze@altarex.com or Sondra Henrichon, Investor Relations, +1-781-672-0138
     ext. 1510, shenrichon@altarex.com, both of AltaRex Corp.