PHILADELPHIA, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- HemispheRx Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq:
HEMXU) announced today the selection of Douglas Hulse as its new Chief
Operating Officer.  Mr. Hulse serves as Executive Director of The Sage Group,
a health care consulting firm specializing in pharmaceutical and
biotechnology business development and strategic planning.  Between 1991 and
1994, Mr. Hulse was Vice-President of Business Development of Enzon, Inc., a
biopharmaceutical company with proprietary drug delivery technologies, and
from 1986 to 1991, Mr. Hulse served as an independent financial consultant to
various biotechnology companies.  He was President and CEO of i-STAT
Corporation, a manufacturer of medical biosensors, from 1984 to 1986.  Hulse
received Masters degrees in Business and Chemical Engineering from M.I.T. and
a Bachelors degree in Chemistry from Princeton University. 

Mr. Hulse has been actively involved in various product launches of new drug
products emerging from the biopharmaceutical sector.  In this capacity, he
negotiated more than three dozen agreements which generated both significant
revenues and set the stage for major licensing deals in various global
markets. 

In his new role, Mr. Hulse will serve as global coordinator interacting with
various distributors and corporate partners while insuring an adequate supply
of drug supplies both for the Company's commercial sales as well as expanded
clinical programs.  HemispheRx recently announced that one of its corporate
partners had successfully completed the first production runs at a nucleic
acid manufacturing plant being started up near Johannesburg, South Africa, as
part of a strategic alliance with Bioclones Proprietary, an affiliated
company of the South African Breweries Limited (NYSE: SBWRY) ("SAS"). More
than 10% of South Africans are affected with hepatitis or AIDS, which are
major target indications for the RNA drug technology.  The strategic alliance
agreement between HemispheRx and Bioclones provided for a $3 million cash
payment to HemispheRx, which has already been funded, and the formation and
issuance to HemispheRx of 24.9% of the capital stock of a company which shall
develop and operate the new manufacturing facility for RNA drugs which is
being constructed by SAS/Bioclones and jointly owned by the three companies.
The South African facility will supply southern hemisphere countries,
complementing HemispheRx's North American manufacturing operations, which
will now report directly to Mr. Hulse. 

HemispheRx's platform technology is positioned to address various
life-threatening, or seriously debilitating, chronic viral diseases for which
no other adequate therapy exists for the majority of afflicted individuals.
Clinical tests to date of the platform technology have focused primarily on a
debilitating viral disorder termed chronic fatigue syndrome ("CFS") as well
as on chronic hepatitis 8 and human immunodeficiency ("HIV") diseases:  these
clinical results are being published in various peer-reviewed scientific and
medical journals in the U.S. and Europe.  Recently, the Centers for Disease
Control ("CDC") upgraded the seriousness of CFS to its top priority list of
"new and re- emerging designed to mimic the body's own digitalized
informational molecules (called DNA and RNA) which, in certain laboratory and
animal studies, reprogram certain diseased cells to enhance their intrinsic
disease-fighting capabilities.  To date, HemispheRx, by a set of "major" and
"minor" diagnostic criteria, which include cognitive difficulties, chronic
debilitation and extreme fatigue which reduces overall quality of life and
physical performance.  There is apparently a high suicidal rate associated
with the unremitting physical pain, loss of mobility and psycho-social
devastation seen in many patients, as noted by the CDC in their ongoing
nationwide studies. 

HemispheRx's platform technology is derived from nucleic acids or "NAs."  NAs
are drugs designed to mimic the body's own digitalized informational
molecules (called DNA and RNA) which, in certain laboratory and animal
studies, reprogram certain diseased cells to enhance their intrinsic
disease-fighting capabilities.  To date, HemispheRx, its academic consortium
partners and SAB/Bioclones Group, have expended in excess of $100,000,000 in
evaluating NA technology in treatment of these devastating chronic illnesses.
Over the last several years, the Company has conducted clinical and
laboratory investigations of NAs in more than twenty major academic research
institutions in the United States. 

HemispheRx is a pharmaceutical company (with corporate headquarters in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and manufacturing facilities in Rockville,
Maryland) engaged in the manufacture and global clinical development of new
drug entities on the NA class for chronic viral diseases and disorders of the
immune system.  To date, HemispheRx, and its subsidiaries have received over
239 patents internationally to protect its proprietary position in NA and
related drug technologies to treat various devastating chronic viral
illnesses. 

CO:  HemispheRx Biopharma Inc. 

ST:  Pennsylvania 

IN:  MTC