PHILADELPHIA, June 17, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemispherx Biopharma (NYSE AMEX:HEB) announced today the appointment of Robert Dickey IV as Senior Vice President. This is a newly created role at Hemispherx that will bring together various activities relating to fund raising, strategic partnering and finance functions. His role will also provide increased focus on strategic alliance evaluation and clinical project management, especially global clinical programs.
Mr. Dickey combines over 12 years of experience in biotech senior management following an 18 year career as an investment banker. He has been involved in three biotech companies holding positions including CFO, COO, CEO and board member. His experience spans startups to revenue stage companies, fund raising, partnering and international operations. His experience further includes working in cancer and CNS drug development, transplantation and computational drug design. As an investment banker, Mr. Dickey spent 14 years at Lehman Brothers in various positions including Senior Vice President and four years at Legg Mason as a Managing Director. He has an undergraduate degree from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
"Rob is coming on board at the most exciting point in our company's history and his breadth of background make a great fit," commented Dr. William A. Carter, Chairman and CEO of Hemispherx. "We have a number of development programs under consideration relating to Ampligen(r) and Alferon and will be very active in evaluating licensing opportunities."
"With the recent financings and the pending commercial opportunities Hemispherx is extremely well-positioned as compared to many other late stage biotechs," Mr. Dickey said. "Moreover, given the recent progressive spread of pandemic flu there is a strategic imperative to accelerate the Company's influenza programs and that will be an area of immediate focus for me. At the same time, we need to carefully look at all of our opportunities, both internally and externally, and prioritize our activities."
About Hemispherx Biopharma
Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. is a specialty pharma 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(r) (FDA approved for a category of sexually transmitted diseases) and the experimental therapeutics, Ampligen(r) and Oragens. Ampligen(r) and Oragens represent experimental RNA nucleic acids being developed for globally important debilitating diseases and disorders of the immune system. Hemispherx's platform technology includes large and small agent components for potential treatment of various severely debilitating and life threatening diseases. Hemispherx has in excess of 50 issued patents comprising its core intellectual property estate and a fully commercialized product (Alferon N Injection(r)). 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(r), Alferon LDO and Oragens) 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(r) do not imply that the product will ever be specifically approved commercially for these other treatment indications; similarly, the completion of the NDA filing process with Ampligen(r) does not imply that the product will ever be approved commercially.