The report, authored by Dr. Kenneth Alibek, the Executive Director of Education for the National Center for Biodefense at George Mason University (NCBD) and by Dr. Charles Bailey, the NCBD's Executive Director of Research, calls the company's Hemopurifier(TM) cartridge potentially "an effective weapon that could be rapidly deployed even against genetically altered biowarfare agents."
The report examines the state of the current and potential biowarfare threats facing our country and discusses the limitations of the treatment options currently available in the event of an attack.
In their report, Alibek and Bailey discuss the potential of Aethlon's Hemopurifier cartridges to bind a wide variety of pathogenic enveloped viruses, including some hemorrhagic fever viruses that have already been weaponized and for which there is no effective treatment. The report says the Hemopurifier technology "can be rapidly made, tested, and deployed to remove new, resistant strains of biological warfare agents from soldiers and civilians."
According to the report, "Aethlon clearly fills a large void in the armamentarium of available treatments for several organisms that may be released either as 'natural' epidemics or deliberately as weapons of bioterror."
The full report is available on the Aethlon website at www.aethlonmedical.com.
The company is pursuing federal government funding under Project Bioshield, a $5.6 billion program which the President signed into law on July 21, for further development of the Hemopurifier cartridge. In preclinical human blood studies, it has already demonstrated its ability to effectively remove HIV (the AIDS Virus), HCV (Hepatitis C Virus), and related protein toxins from infected blood.
Information about Aethlon Medical, Inc.
Aethlon Medical is pioneering the development of viral filtration devices to treat HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis-C (HCV), and pathogens that are mass casualty biological warfare candidates. Each treatment application employs the use of a proprietary technology known as the Hemopurifier(TM), which is designed to rapidly reduce the presence of infectious disease and toxins in the body. The Hemopurifier converges the established scientific principals of affinity chromatography and hemodialysis as a means to augment the immune response of clearing viruses and toxins from the blood before cell and organ infection can occur. More information on Aethlon Medical and the Hemopruifier technology is available at www.aethlonmedical.com.
Ken Alibek M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.
Dr. Alibek is the Executive Director of Education at the National Center for Biodefense at George Mason University (GMU), and is a Distinguished Professor at GMU as well. Dr. Alibek specializes in medical and scientific research dedicated to developing new forms of protection against biological weapons and other infectious diseases. Formerly, Dr. Alibek was a Soviet Army Colonel, and served as First Deputy Chief of the civilian branch of the Soviet Union's biological weapons program until he defected to the United States in 1992 and subsequently served as a consultant to numerous U.S. government agencies in the areas of medical microbiology, biological weapons defense, and biological weapons nonproliferation. Dr. Alibek has worked with the National Institutes of Health, testified extensively before the U.S. Congress on nonproliferation of biological weapons and is the author of Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World--Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It, published by Random House Books. He holds numerous patents, is widely published in science journals, and has provided over 300 lectures and presentations to military and civilian universities, as well as foreign governments. The December 2003 issue of the Acumen Journal of Life Sciences named Dr. Alibek as one of top five biological warfare experts in the nation.
Charles Bailey, Ph.D.
Dr. Bailey is the former commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Dr. Bailey has 25 years' U.S. Army experience in R&D and management in infectious diseases and biological warfare defense. As an officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Dr. Bailey wrote extensively on foreign biological warfare capabilities. Dr. Bailey is currently the Executive Director for Research & International Relations at the National Center for Biodefense at George Mason University (GMU), and is a Distinguished Professor of Biology at GMU as well. The Acumen Journal of Life Sciences named Dr. Bailey as one of the top five biological warfare experts in the nation.
Dr. Alibek and Dr. Bailey, in addition to their national leadership roles at the NCBD, currently serve unpaid on Aethlon Medical's Science Advisory Board which they joined in the spring of 2004. It is possible that they may be compensated for future consulting work for the company. The Science Advisory Board is a group of globally recognized science advisors representing the infectious disease, biowarfare, and dialysis industries who provide scientific and medical guidance to the company's scientists.
Certain statements in this news release may be forward looking and involve risks and uncertainties. These include statements about the company's plans for testing and developing its technology and the potential future uses of the technology. 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 as detailed in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
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