14.05.1999, 16:51

Value Management & Research Reiterates Strong Buy RecommendationforHemispherx / Short Seller's (Asensio's) Negative Publicity Is"Misleading and Much Ado About Nothing" Frankfurt, Germany (ots-PRNewswire) - The following is beingissued today by Value Management & Research AG, a fundmanagement,investment banking, research organization listed on the FrankfurtStock Exchange with a current market capitalization ofapproximately$170 million. VMR has offices in Frankfurt, London, Geneva,Luxembourg and Madrid: The only issue here is whether Hemispherx will succeed as apharmaceutical company. Scientific, operational and financialprogress will determine the share's price development. Mudslinging from biased short sellers, based on irrelevant,"ancient" and peripheral issues, adds a purely emotionalcomponentand distracts from an objective fundamental assessment. Sinceshortsell raids on Hemispherx are frequent, one-sided and almostalwayspredictable, we have recently reviewed the major negative claimsrelating to Hemispherx in an in-depth research report. We inviteinvestors to review these claims and to form their own opinion. Based on our fundamental assessment, we continue to rateHemispherx as a Strong Buy. We believe the stock should reach newhighs this year and reiterate our medium term $50/share pricetarget.We are indeed reviewing potential benefits which Ampligen mayhavefor the treatment of HIV sufferers worldwide and are reviewingthishypothesis with top scientists. One short seller's mudslingingcampaign may not only mislead a number of investors by omittingand/or misrepresenting important facts, but may also delay theavailability of potentially important medicines to hundreds ofthousands of chronic CFS and terminally ill AIDS sufferers in theUnited States and abroad. To obtain our most recent Hemispherx report relating to oneshortseller's negative claims please proceed as follows: Type HEB US Equity then hit Enter Type CN, then hit Enter. Then choose the number of the story requested. Our research report was made available on Bloomberg on April27th,1999. When you see this news item on your screen hit the number ofthenews report. Then hit 1 Go. The report will be downloaded and can then be read or printed. You may also contact us by fax: Value Management and Research AG M.Kind, Director, fax from the US: 011-49-6196-8800199, frominside Europe 00-49-61968800199 or by telephone 49-6196-88000. or by e-mail mkind@vmr.de. We will make sure you receive ourreports. Regarding the short seller's attempt to discredit our researchefforts and Hemispherx by referring to completely unrelated andirrelevant issues, please review the following response: The short-seller quotes an October, 1998 FDA letter which asksHemispherx to "discontinue the dissemination of materials thatmakeclaims of safety or efficacy for Ampligen." This quote is out ofcontext and misleading. The FDA letter only states the obviouswhichis that a company cannot claim safety or efficacy to the publicbefore final FDA approval has been given. This letter in no wayreflects Ampligen's true safety or efficacy or lack thereof. Whatcanbe done, however, is to quote scientific, clinical resultspublishedin peer review studies such as the following: "PolyI:polyCl2U (Ampligen) therapy of HIV-positive subjectsrestored or stabilized immune function as indexed by delayed-typehyper-sensitivity reactivity and, in individuals with CD4+ counts>300/mm(3), abrogated CD4+ loss and reduced disease progression.Ampligen was generally well-tolerated... No subject discontinuedtherapy due to an adverse reaction or aberrant laboratoryparameter." Eur.J.Clinical Microbiological Infectious Diseases, 1996,15:580-587, K.A. Thompson et al. Underlying studies performed atvarious independent and distinguished US medical institutionssuch asBaylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas) and the University ofMiami (Florida). "Ampligen and AZT were synergistic in inhibiting all isolatesofHIV tested, regardless of their AZT phenotype. Furthermore, thecombination of Ampligen and AZT showed no toxicity in vitro tobonemarrow CFU-GM compared to AZT alone. In 11 HIV infectedindividualsreceiving the combinational regimen, bone marrow graduallyimproved.These results indicate that Ampligen was active against AZT-resistantHIV, synergistic with AZT, and did not convey added toxicity."invivo, 1994, 8:375-382, David Gillespie et al. At HahnemannUniversityin Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These two studies were conducted at the highest level ofclinicaldesign and the results were audited to confirm accuracy of theclinical and laboratory results. Relating to other peripheral and irrelevant issues raised intheshort-seller's note, Value Management & Research indeedrecommendedDynamic Associates at $1.375 on November 27th, 1997 as an"outstanding buying opportunity." While the shares of DYAS arenowtrading at $0.11 per share, all shareholders that have held theirstock since our recommendation have also received one share in MWMedical. These shares are presently trading at $1.48. On May 5thMWMedical shares reached a high price of $2.00 on May 4th on349,000shares. Adding the current share price of DYAS of $0.11 to thecurrent share price of MW Medical produces to total value forshareholders of $1.59. Given our recommended price of $1.375,thisproduces a gain of 15.6%, and not a loss of 92% as indicated byAsensio. The short seller has conveniently "forgotten" to includetheMW Medical spinoff to Dynamic shareholders in his calculationsthusleading to a substantially erroneous conclusion. Other Miscellaneous Issues: Regarding to Turbodyne, VMR issued a formal sellrecommendation,on September 9th, 1998. The shares were trading at $4.875 at thetime. Since then, the shares have declined by 63% to $1.80. VMR AG has no business dealings with Harry Moll. Mr. Homm's options in Dynamic associates and VMR's holdings inHemispherx are a matter of public record. VMR's legal disclaimerclearly addresses potential conflicts of interest. VMR hasregistered750,000 shares of Hemispherx stock which it acquired in a privateplacement as a long term investment. Despite these shares beingfreely tradeable, VMR has not sold a single share. Regarding the E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. termination of itspartnership with Hemispherx, it should be noted that subsequentlawsuits were settled in favor of Hemispherx. As result DuPontpaidHemispherx the equivalent of $8 million in compensation. Itshouldalso be noted that at least three other investment firms areratingHemispherx as a "Buy." This document is for informative purposes only. Under nocircumstances is it to be used or considered as an offer to sell,ora solicitation of any offer to buy, any security. While theinformation contained herein has been obtained from sourcesbelievedto be reliable, we do not represent that it is accurate orcompleteand it should not be relied upon as such. We may from time totimehave long or short positions in and buy and sell securitiesreferredto herein. This firm may from time to time perform investmentbankingor other services for, or solicit investment banking or otherbusiness from, any company mentioned in this document.ots Original Text Service: Value Management and Research AGInternet: http://www.newsaktuell.deContact:Patricia Koehler of Value Management and Research+49-6196-88000, or fax, +49-6196-8800-199, or pkoehler@vmr.dee-mail:

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