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News Release
Aethlon Medical Announces Expansion Into the Infectious Disease Diagnostic Market
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2009-- Aethlon Medical, Inc. (OTCBB:AEMD) announced today that it has expanded the applications of its Hemopurifier® platform technology to address voids in the infectious disease diagnostic market. The Aethlon Hemopurifier® is a first-in-class artificial adjunct to the immune system able to provide real-time capture of infectious viruses and immunosuppressive particles from the entire circulatory system. The device is a leading broad-spectrum treatment candidate for acute and chronic virus infections. Scientific techniques that established the therapeutic potential of the Hemopurifier® will be leveraged to introduce ultra-sensitive clinical and research diagnostic tools that offer significant potential for previously unrecognized revenue channels.
In diagnostic applications, Aethlon will concentrate viruses from large blood volumes to increase sensitivity of viral load testing standards, which previously have been limited to detecting viruses from small blood samples. By concentrating virus directly from a patient or from donated blood units, the sensitivity of viral load tests may be increased up to 5,000 fold as compared to 1ml blood sample testing. Thus allowing for the accurate detection of viruses such as HIV and HCV even when viral load may be deemed undetectable through current testing standards. Additional market opportunities include the identification of viral pathogens that trigger the rejection of stem-cell therapies, bone marrow, and organ transplants. Upon confirmation of such viruses, the Hemopurifier® would then become a treatment candidate to improve stem-cell therapy and transplant outcomes. Aethlon’s diagnostic techniques would provide superior detection of viruses in donated blood and may unlock the ability for researchers to discover viral biomarkers that underlie a multitude of disease conditions. Aethlon also disclosed its diagnostic capabilities will be deployed to further reinforce the therapeutic benefit of the Hemopurifier® to capture deleterious viruses from circulation. In this regard, Aethlon has initiated a diagnostic program to screen and identify all viral species captured in the recent Hemopurifier® treatment of a Hepatitis-C infected patient.
About Aethlon Medical
Aethlon Medical creates diagnostic and therapeutic filtration devices to improve the health of individuals afflicted with infectious disease and cancer. The Company’s lead product, the Aethlon Hemopurifer®, is a first-in-class artificial adjunct to the immune system proven to capture infectious viruses and immunosuppressive particles from circulation. The device targets to inhibit disease progression of Hepatitis-C Virus (HCV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and serves as a broad-spectrum treatment countermeasure against bioterror and emerging pandemic threats. The Hemopurifier® also holds promise in cancer care, as research studies verify the Hemopurifier® effectively captures immunosuppressive exosomes that are secreted by tumors to kill-off immune cells. At present, over sixty (60) Hemopurifier® treatments (representing approximately 240 hours of treatment time) have been conducted in multi-site studies at the Apollo Hospital, Fortis Hospital, and Sigma New-Life Hospital in India. The studies enrolled end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients infected with either HCV or HIV. In addition to establishing treatment safety, robust viral load reductions have been reported in HCV-infected patients who completed a three-treatment protocol during the course of one week.
Research studies have also demonstrated the Hemopurifier® is effective in capturing a broad-spectrum of viruses untreatable with drug therapy, including several of world’s deadliest bioterror and pandemic threats. These include: Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF), H5N1 avian influenza (Bird Flu), the reconstructed 1918 influenza virus (r1918), West Nile virus (WNV), and Vaccinia and Monkeypox (MPV), which both serve as models for human smallpox infection. The studies were conducted with the assistance of researchers representing: The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID); The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); The National Institute of Virology (NIV); The Battelle Biomedical Research Center (BBRC); and The Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR).
In additional to therapeutic market opportunities, Aethlon is leveraging principles underlying the Hemopurifier® technology platform to establish a pipeline of clinical and research diagnostic products and services. Additional information regarding Aethlon Medical can be accessed online at www.aethlonmedical.com.
Certain of the statements herein may be forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Aethlon Medical, Inc to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the Company’s ability to raise capital when needed, the Company’s ability to complete the development of its planned products, the ability of the Company to obtain FDA and other regulatory approvals permitting the sale of its products, the Company’s ability to manufacture its products and provide its services, the impact of government regulations, patent protection on the Company’s proprietary technology, product liability exposure, uncertainty of market acceptance, competition, technological change, and other risk factors. In such instances, actual results could differ materially as a result of a variety of factors, including the risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions and other risk factors detailed in the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Source: Aethlon Medical, Inc.
Aethlon Medical, Inc.
Prashant Mehta, Ph.D.
Director of Business Development
858-459-7800 x303
pmehta@aethlonmedical.com
or
Jim Frakes
Senior VP Finance
858-459-7800 x300
jfrakes@aethlonmedical.com
or
Jim Joyce
Chairman, CEO
858-459-7800 x301
jj@aethlonmedical.com
