Asensio & Company, Inc. Announces Investment Opinion on Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2002

On December 9, 2002, Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. (AMEX: HEB Price: $2.50) issued a press release titled "Hemispherx Biopharma completes full enrollment of its Phase III Clinical Trial for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome."

A letter from Asensio & Company, Inc. to Stephen Cutler, Director of Enforcement of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, dated December 18, 2002 detailing the facts clearly showing that Hemispherx continues to deliberately issue misleading information to the investing public is available at www.asensio.com.

The Hemispherx public stock promotion began in 1995 with its initial public offering. Over twenty-three of the entities and individuals involved with Hemispherx's public stock promotion have been the subject of complaints, indictments and convictions by federal and state regulators in at least 16 states for numerous securities laws violations. Most recently, on October 29, 2002, Stephen J. Drescher, a secretly compensated Hemispherx stock promoter and former director, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison and on August 15, 2002 the leaders of another Hemispherx promoter were criminally indicted by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Hemispherx is being formally investigated for fraud by the SEC. William Carter was Hemispherx's leader when Hemispherx made payments and executed transactions that are the subject of at least 6 federal criminal indictments and other New York state indictments. Over the past 25 years, Carter has been accused of unethical and illegal behavior by Hemispherx itself, of extortion by an AIDS patient, of scientific fraud by E.I. Dupont, of improper medical work by a hospital and his own staff and was fired by that hospital after years of disputes and lawsuits. Its entire stock value is based on its public promotion of the commercial value of Ampligen that is based on questionable out-dated studies that have been considered by the European Medical Evaluation Authority to be "not useful for efficacy assessment" and could not "be considered as clinically relevant."

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