PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 17, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. (NYSE Amex:HEB) (the "Company"), announced today the appointment of Mr. Ronald Ritz as Senior Director of Manufacturing.
Mr. Ritz served as Senior Director of Technical Operations at Enzon Pharmaceuticals from 2008 until 2010, and as Senior Director of Manufacturing Operations from 2005 to 2008, where he was responsible for the manufacture of Enzon's four commercial products at their South Plainfield, NJ facility. Previous to working at Enzon, Mr. Ritz worked at Discovery Laboratories as Vice President of Manufacturing Operations, and at Elan Pharmaceuticals as Executive Director. He served 20 years at Johnson & Johnson as Director of Operations in the Blood Bank Business Unit. Mr. Ritz has a vast amount of experience working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the European Regulatory Agencies and has worked in a GMP environment throughout his career. His 30 years of pharmaceutical manufacturing knowledge consists of blood derived products, parenteral vaccines, and biologic pegylation processes. Mr. Ritz received a MBA from Fairleigh Dickenson University in Madison, NJ and BS in Biology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Mr. Ritz will be joining Hemispherx as Senior Director of Manufacturing at its New Brunswick, NJ manufacturing facility.
Dr. William A. Carter, Chairman and CEO of Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. commented, "Mr. Ritz's experience and expertise will greatly strengthen the manufacturing depth of our natural interferon commercial product, Alferon N Injection®, as well as our experimental therapeutic, Ampligen®, being developed for a number of clinical settings including vaccine enhancement and potential treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)."
About Hemispherx Biopharma
Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. is an advanced specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the manufacture and clinical development of new drug entities for treatment of seriously debilitating disorders. Hemispherx's flagship products include Alferon N Injection® (FDA approved for a category of sexually transmitted diseases) and the experimental therapeutics Ampligen® and Alferon® LDO. Ampligen® is an experimental RNA nucleic acid being developed for globally important debilitating diseases and disorders of the immune system. Hemispherx's platform technology includes components for potential treatment of various severely debilitating and life threatening diseases. Hemispherx has patents comprising its core intellectual property estate and a fully commercialized product (Alferon N Injection®). The Company wholly owns and exclusively operates a GMP certified manufacturing facility in the United States for commercial products. For more information please visit www.hemispherx.net.
Information contained in this news release, other than historical information, should be considered forward-looking and is subject to various risk factors and uncertainties. For instance, the strategies and operations of Hemispherx involve risk of competition, changing market conditions, change in laws and regulations affecting these industries and numerous other factors discussed in this release and in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any specifically referenced investigational drugs and associated technologies of the Company (including Ampligen® and Alferon® LDO) are experimental in nature and as such are not designated safe and effective by a regulatory authority for general use and are legally available only through clinical trials with the referenced disorders. The forward-looking statements represent the Company's judgment as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Clinical trials for other potential indications of the approved biologic Alferon N Injection® do not imply that the product will ever be specifically approved commercially for these other treatment indications. The planning, completion, results or submission of clinical trials do not imply that any study product will ever be approved commercially for the studied or other treatment indications.