PHILADELPHIA, June 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemispherx Biopharma (NYSE AMEX:HEB) announced that it held its 2009 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Final voting results will be included in an 8-K to be filed later today.
As with last year's Annual Meeting of Stockholders, there was an extremely low turnout. The Company believes that this was due to the fact that more than 40% of its outstanding shares are held outside the United States. Most of these shares are held at European banks that do not participate in the proxies of American companies. Even with the quorum lowered to 40% for the meeting, only approximately 40.34% of the outstanding shares entitled to vote were represented in person or by proxy.
At the meeting, each of the five nominees for director named in the Company's proxy statement was elected to a one-year term, the selection of McGladrey & Pullen, LLP as independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2009 was ratified and the adoption of the Company's 2009 Equity Incentive Plan was approved.
The Company left the polls opened with regard to voting on the amendment of its certificate of incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of Common Stock from 200,000,000 to 350,000,000 and adjourned the meeting solely with regard to this proposal until July 28, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 1776 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia Pennsylvania 19103. The Company did this due to the extremely low vote turn out and the requirement that this proposal be approved by the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares, rather than just a majority of the shares present at the meeting. In fact, less than the requisite number of shares for approval of the proposal were present at the meeting.
About Hemispherx Biopharma
Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. is a specialty pharma company engaged in the manufacture and clinical development of new drug entities for treatment of seriously debilitating disorders. Hemispherx's flagship products include Alferon N Injection(r) (FDA approved for a category of sexually transmitted diseases) and the experimental therapeutics, Ampligen(r) and Oragens. Ampligen(r) and Oragens represent experimental RNA nucleic acids being developed for globally important debilitating diseases and disorders of the immune system. Hemispherx's platform technology includes large and small agent components for potential treatment of various severely debilitating and life threatening diseases. Hemispherx has in excess of 50 issued patents comprising its core intellectual property estate and a fully commercialized product (Alferon N Injection(r)). The Company wholly owns and exclusively operates a GMP certified manufacturing facility in the United States for commercial products. For more information please visit www.hemispherx.net.
Information contained in this news release other than historical information, should be considered forward-looking and is subject to various risk factors and uncertainties. For instance, the strategies and operations of Hemispherx involve risk of competition, changing market conditions, change in laws and regulations affecting these industries and numerous other factors discussed in this release and in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any specifically referenced investigational drugs and associated technologies of the Company (including Ampligen(r), Alferon LDO and Oragens) are experimental in nature and as such are not designated safe and effective by a regulatory authority for general use and are legally available only through clinical trials with the referenced disorders. The forward-looking statements represent the Company's judgment as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Clinical trials for other potential indications of the approved biologic Alferon N Injection(r) do not imply that the product will ever be specifically approved commercially for these other treatment indications; similarly, the completion of the NDA filing process with Ampligen(r) does not imply that the product will ever be approved commercially.