EXHIBIT NO. 99.1

                        ALTAREX ANNOUNCES AUDITOR CHANGE

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 9 /CNW/ -- AltaRex Corp. (TSE: AXO - News; OTC: ALXFF.PK -
News) announced that it has retained Vitale, Caturano & Company, as its
independent auditors, effective immediately. Vitale, Caturano & Company replaces
Arthur Andersen LLP, which has served as the company's independent auditor since
1999. In June, 2002 Arthur Andersen resigned as the Company's auditors in
connection with the cessation of its audit practice in the United States.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000831/ALTREXLOGO)

The resignation of Arthur Andersen was not the result of any disagreement
between the Company and Arthur Andersen on any matter of accounting principles
or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure.

Additional information about AltaRex research and development, clinical trials,
news and events can be found on the Company website http://www.altarex.com.

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; the risk that the Company can not raise funds
on a timely basis on satisfactory terms or at all; the need to obtain and
maintain corporate alliances, such as the alliance with United Therapeutics, 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
and 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
and/or its collaborators will file for regulatory approval on a timely basis;
uncertainties as to when, if at all, the FDA or other equivalent regulatory
authorities will accept or approve regulatory filings for the Company's
products; the need to establish and scale-up manufacturing processes,
uncertainty as to the timely development and market acceptance of the Company's
products; the risk that the claims allowed under any issued patent owned or
licensed by the Company will not be sufficiently broad to protect the Company's
technology, that any patents issued to the Company will not be sustained if
challenged in court proceedings or otherwise or that third parties will be able
to develop products or processes that do not infringe valid patents owned or
licensed by the Company, 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

Trudy Chimko of AltaRex Corp., Human Resources & Corporate Communications,
+1-781-672-0138, investor@altarex.com