Point Roberts, WA. March 25, 2011 – Investorideas.com, a leader in sector research including
biotech and biodefense stocks, presents an interview with Jim Joyce, CEO of Aethlon Medical
(OTCBB: AEMD).
InvestorIdeas: What opportunities exist for small organizations that want to participate in
the emerging biodefense industry?
Jim Joyce, CEO of Aethlon Medical (OTCBB: AEMD)
Multiple opportunities have recently surfaced for small organizations with innovative
countermeasures against bioterror threats, and more are expected in the near future. As an
example, Freemind Group, an industry advisory organization reported this week that they are
witnessing a dramatic and unprecedented surge in biodefense and infectious disease funding
opportunities from various government institutes. They anticipate that funding applications
submitted during the coming months of May, June, and July alone will result in cumulative awards
of approximately $500,000,000.00. In fact, some of these awards are not capped and can exceed
$50,000,000 for clinical trial support. For small organizations, such non-dilutive awards offer to
transform business capabilities and reward patient shareholders.
InvestorIdeas: That’s certainly exciting, but how can small organizations like Aethlon
Medical compete against big pharma for such awards?
Jim Joyce, CEO of Aethlon Medical
In reality, both big pharma and large biotechnology players have demonstrated little interest
in responding to these programs. As a result, government agencies are primarily reliant on
innovation stemming from research advanced by small organizations, which from a historical
basis, is likely to be the principal source of innovation anyway. Still, these programs do not
exist to solely support research. Recently created agencies like the Biomedical Research and
Development Authority (known as BARDA) provide support for post R&D activities including
clinical studies, manufacturing, and other activities that may be required to transition a candidate
treatment countermeasure into the strategic national stockpile.
InvestorIdeas: Do you feel Aethlon Medical is positioned to benefit from these programs?
Mr. Joyce: I feel we are extremely well positioned to benefit as government policies to protect
against bioterror and pandemic threats have been redefined to focus support towards broad-
spectrum countermeasures that are able to address multiple pathogen threats. Based on pre-
clinical and clinical data, we believe our Hemopurifier® is the most advanced and perhaps only
true broad-spectrum countermeasure. While traditional therapeutics often struggle to address
multiple strains of the same pathogen, third party researchers have demonstrated that our
Hemopurifier® captures different species of many of the most deadly viral threats known to man.
These include Dengue, Ebola, and Lassa Hemorrhagic Viruses, West Nile Virus, H5N1 Avian
Influenza Virus, the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Virus, the reconstructed Spanish Flu of 1918, and
Monkeypox Virus, which is the primary model for testing treatments against human Smallpox
infection.
InvestorIdeas: Have you conducted any human studies with your Hemopurifier®
Jim Joyce, CEO of Aethlon Medical
Yes, we have advanced our technology into human studies, which demonstrated safety and the
observation of significant viral load reductions in both hepatitis-C and HIV infected individuals
without the administration of antiviral drug therapies. We are now advancing a clinical program
whose objective is to utilize our Hemopurifier® as an adjunct strategy to improve the benefit
of hepatitis-C standard-of-care drug therapy without adding drug toxicity and interaction risks.
We are quite excited about this clinical program, as therapeutic filtration of hepatitis-C from
plasma has previously proven to have a remarkable effect in improving treatment outcomes
when combined with drug therapy.
opportunity, I feel confident that we are advancing a leading broad-spectrum therapeutic strategy
to address viral threats, and that our strategy fulfills strategic objectives recently mandated by
our government.
treatment countermeasures that may also have mainstream commercial market applications in
disease conditions such as hepatitis-C, HIV, and cancer.
InvestorIdeas: Is Aethlon Medical currently pursuing any contract or grant opportunities?
Jim Joyce, CEO of Aethlon Medical
Yes. In the coming days we will submit a formal response to a military program opportunity
entitled “Dialysis Like Therapeutics”. The stated goal of this program is the creation of a medical
device that would save the lives of thousands of military patients each year. While our response
is challenging, it has also been rewarding as we have attracted several groups to partner and
participate in our submission. Once our response is in, we will then convene with our advisors to
determine the next contract opportunity to focus our efforts towards.
InvestorIdeas: In closing, is there any advice you would provide to other organizations
that might be interested in participating in the biodefense and pandemic threat industry?
Jim Joyce, CEO of Aethlon Medical
By nature, the opportunity to address the looming threat of biological weapons and naturally
Regardless, as it specifically relates to our biodefense
We also benefit from a policy shift that no longer precludes the support of
emerging pandemic threats will be enduring and the industry is still very young. However, my
advise for small organizations is to be sure they have therapeutic strategies in place to address
established disease conditions with real commercial markets before venturing into a field where
targeted disease conditions may or may not emerge and the primary source of support is
government funding.
About Aethlon Medical (OTCBB: AEMD)
At Aethlon Medical, we create revolutionary devices to address infectious disease and cancer.
Our devices are designed to be novel platform solutions that fill therapeutic voids or aid in
disease diagnosis and monitoring.
Our Hemopurifier® is the first medical device to selectively target the removal of infectious
viruses and immunosuppressive proteins from the entire circulatory system. We recently
discovered that our Hemopurifier® captures tumor-secreted exosomes that suppress the immune
system of those afflicted with cancer. Prior to this discovery, a therapeutic strategy to directly
inhibit or reverse the immunosuppressive destruction caused by exosomes did not exist in cancer
care. By eliminating this mechanism, we believe our Hemopurifier® can fill an unmet clinical need
and provide the benefit of an immune-based therapy without adding drug toxicity or interaction
risks to established and emerging treatment strategies.
Human studies have documented the ability of our Hemopurifier® to safely reduce viral load
in both Hepatitis-C virus (HCV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infected patients
without the administration of antiviral drugs. However, our initial clinical and commercialization
focus is to establish our Hemopurifier® as an adjunct therapy to enhance the benefit of both
infectious disease and cancer treatment regimens. In this regard, we plan to commercialize
our Hemopurifier® in India as we advance our clinical strategies in the United States and the
European Union. In vitro studies conducted by government and non-government research
institutes have also verified that our Hemopurifier® has broad-spectrum capabilities against
bioterror and emerging pandemic threats. These studies have confirmed the capture of Dengue
Hemorrhagic Virus, Ebola Hemorrhagic Virus, Lassa Hemorrhagic Virus, West Nile Virus, H5N1
Avian Influenza Virus, 2009 H1N1 Influenza Virus, the reconstructed Spanish Flu of 1918 Virus,
and Monkeypox Virus, which serves as a model for human Smallpox infection.
As a therapeutic device, the Hemopurifier® provides us with a pipeline into four significant market
opportunities:
1. Cancer: A treatment candidate to improve patient responsiveness to established cancer
therapies by removing immunosuppressive exosomes from circulation.
2. Hepatitis-C Virus (HCV): As an adjunct therapy to accelerate viral load reduction at the outset
of standard of care drug regimens.
3. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV): Provides a potential therapeutic option for HIV-infected
individuals to manage disease progression once they become resistant to antiviral drug regimens.
4. Bioterror and Pandemic Threats: Represents the most advanced broad-spectrum strategy to
address untreatable bioterror and emerging pandemic threats.
The Hemopurifier® is an expansive multi-patented platform technology whose mechanism
of action can be leveraged to provide therapeutic, diagnostic, and biomarker discovery
solutions. As a therapeutic, the Hemopurifier® is a single-use disposable cartridge designed
for implementation within the established infrastructure of dialysis machines and other blood
circulatory pumps already located in hospitals and clinics worldwide.
In design, our Hemopurifier® is a selective filtration device containing affinity agents that
tightly bind to high-mannose structures unique to the surface of exosomes produced by cancer
and glycoproteins residing on the envelope of viruses. These agents are immobilized around
approximately 2800 porous hollow fibers that run the interior length of our device. The resulting
design provides us the novel ability to separate both exosome and viral targets away from blood
cells so they can then be selectively and permanently removed from the circulatory system. In
application, blood circulation is established into the Hemopurifier® via a catheter or other blood
access device. Once blood flow has been established, treatment benefit is immediate as the
entire circulatory system can pass through the Hemopurifier® in as little as 15 minutes.
Our wholly owned subsidiary, Exosome Sciences, Inc. (ESI) is focused on the development of
exosome-targeted products and services that improve cancer diagnosis, provide post-treatment
cancer surveillance, and aid in the discovery of biomarkers that allow doctors to optimize patient
therapy. Additional information regarding Aethlon Medical and Exosome Sciences 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 commercialize its Hemopurifier® in India,
capability of the Hemopurifier® to reduce viral loads and other disease conditions or to identify or
treat disease conditions such as cancer or Hepatitis-C, including the ability to capture exosomes
and the impact that potential ability may have on disease conditions, 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 either internally or
through outside companies 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.
Contacts:
James A. Joyce
Chairman, CEO
858.459.7800 x301
jj@aethlonmedical.com
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