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The Plot Thickens for HEMISPHERx Biopharma
Friday, 29 May 2009 02:01
"What do we think CFS is?” Dr. William Reeves asked a worldwide audience watching his streaming video presentation from the meeting for the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee (CFSAC) of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC. on Thursday. “It’s a complex illness, with alterations in complex homeostatic systems. It’s not the result of a single mutation or a single environmental factor. It comes from a combination of many factors: genetics, gender, stressors, immune stressors all interact.”
Reeves is chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Chronic Viral Diseases Branch, the man in charge of the government’s top Chronic Fatigue Research program. A few years ago, during a press conference which was set-up in an attempt to sway public opinion and policy, Reeves revealed that CDC researchers had uncovered groundbreaking, scientific results which established that CFS had a "biological basis".
It was during that day, in late April of 2006, that major television networks and hundreds of newspapers carried the message that many had been waiting to hear. In the eyes of advocates and patients, that day was to forever change the way chronic fatigue syndrome would be conceptualized - by scientists, physicians, and the public. At least, that’s what was supposed to happen.
Since that time, Reeves has not minced words about his science or position on the matter. "CFS is quite common," Reeves told Forbes Magazine earlier this year. "It is a real illness. If you have the symptoms of CFS, see a provider. It's not all in your head -- it's not a crock."
Yesterday, Reeves was the ring master of what turned out to be an “Ampligen love-in” at the Health and Human Services event. Not an insignificant fact when you consider that this was the CFSAC's first meeting under the
Obama Administration's and that the HHS is at the top of the food chain and rules the FDA, the CDC, The Social Security Administration, National Institute of Health, HRSA, Etc.
As some of you may already know, Ampligen, is an experimental immunomodulatory double stranded RNA drug developed by HEMISPHERx Biopharma (Amex: HEB). In addition, it is the only drug in any pipeline of any pharmaceutical company in the world which aims to become the standard treatment for CFS.
Reeves showed slide after slide with a diagrams and lists. Almost always near the top of those slides were references to HEB and Ampligen. “This is our current model. You see the brain in the middle. Around the brain, stress is involved, traumatic childhood stressors, allostatic load maladaptation to stressors, genes interact with one’s reaction to stress...”
Just then as countless CFS patients and HEMISPHERx Biopharma investors were watching, something went “Boom!”
It was yet another grenade lobbed at the publicly traded company whose stock price had continued inching upwards for yet another day in anticipation of the Food and Drug Administration’s pending decision to approve the drug for widespread use in America.
This time, the pin was pulled by Adam Feuerstein, a graduate from Emory University with a bachelor's degree in political science who serves as the Portfolio Manager, Biotech Select for TheStreet.com. Adam asserted his own opinion- which apparently many mistook for scientific fact. “Ampligen will not be approved.”
KABOOM! The moment his Hemispherx's CFS Drug Is a Long Shot article hit the wires, the stock’s share price started to take a nose dive.
The thinly disguised opinion piece from a writer without a science or medical degree hit it’s mark with thousands of high-strung investors who began to dump shares en-masse. Many thought Feuerstein might just be right, so they began to sell as quickly as possible. Others thought the FDA had actually rendered a negative ruling against the company because the stock was suddenly dropping in value without any other apparent explanation. Panic had hit the world of Hemispherx share holders once again.
Did Feuerstein blister the company on purpose? Was it all part of a sinister plan orchestrated to sink prices lower so someone could swoop in and salvage their piece for a lower price? Whether it was planned that way or not, at least one big investor did just that to the tune of over 230,000 shares not long after HEB parcels had bottomed at $1.51- down from a day high of $1.76.
Still, it would be expensive, time consuming and difficult to prove a conspiracy like that beyond reasonable doubt and we are not here to crucify Mr. Feuerstein for exercising his constitutionally protected rights.
Certainly, he’s a bright man who is entitled to his own opinion-- even his conclusions didn’t come wrapped up as nicely as they could have to some investors who have since taken to slamming him repeatedly on social media sites and forums across the web.
Like it or not, this subject has become the talk of the biomedical financial sector as many feel his article was not substantiated by enough positive knowledge or proof. Others argue that his research was actually filled with misconceptions, and misplaced scientific information. They’re not alone.
“Adam Feuerstein wouldn’t know good science if it bit him in the ass!”
In a world where CEOs of publicly traded companies make it a point not to get into shouting matches with misled members of the media, I was actually given explicit permission, told I could “record and report everything I’m going to say. I’m not going to say too much in direct response. The record can be set straight on this matter by the government themselves. The same people who have already told us this is a serious gene malfunction that costs us north of $90 billion a year in lost wages and productivity not to mention social security benefits.”
Yes, Dr. William A. Carter, CEO and Chairman of the Board of HEMISPHERx Biopharma was making it abundantly clear to me that an exposed nerve had just been pricked – again. This is the same man who has been accused of everything from not caring about his own company’s investors to selling snake oil. He’s also the brilliant mind who has never given up on Ampligen and who genuinely seems driven to help those who have to live with CFS and the stigmas associated with it.
“It sounds like those guys are living twenty years behind in time,” continued Dr. Carter, as he referred to Feuerstein’s assertion that “CFS, a poorly understood disease with no known cause...”
Had Feuerstein really not gotten the memo about the scientific community’s findings in 2006 or did he simply choose to ignore them?
“This is a disease that destroys lives,” said an impassioned Dr. Carter. “It costs people their jobs, their marriages- as their frustrated spouses walk out on them. In some cases it even costs them their very lives due to suicide and catastrophic heart failure. Our drug helps so many of these very sick, suffering people. There is ample peer reviewed data and proof of that, yet they choose to ignore it.
“Perhaps the writers at TheStreet.com are unaware that for several years now, the FDA has given people suffering with CFS the right to use Ampligen for emergency (compassionate) use. “
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