PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 17, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. (NYSE Amex:HEB) (the "Company" or "Hemispherx") today announced that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has issued an order granting final approval of a settlement of the currently pending securities class actions consolidated in the action In re Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. Securities Litigation. In August 2010, the Company announced that it had received the Court's preliminary approval of the settlement of this litigation. The settlement will be paid from the Company's insurance coverage and will not result in the payment of any funds by the Company. Furthermore, the settlement expressly is not an admission of any culpability by Hemispherx or its officers.
Thomas K. Equels, Hemispherx's Executive Vice Chairman and General Counsel stated: "With these class actions behind us we can now fully focus our time and resources on the important work of new drug development related to Ampligen® for CFS, important flu related clinical trials, and the manufacturing and marketing of our FDA approved anti-viral Alferon N Injection®. We thank our outside counsel, Pepper Hamilton LLP, for their excellent work in defending and resolving this matter."
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.