Amarillo Biosciences Files Patent To Treat Obesity With Oral Interferon

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 12 Jun 2008 - 1:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Amarillo Biosciences, Inc. (OTCBB: AMAR), a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on low-dose orally administered interferon as a treatment for a variety of conditions, announced that a patent has been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on the oral use of interferon to treat obesity.

The company recently conducted a review of clinical data from four studies that it had conducted wherein 582 women were treated for autoimmune diseases or fibromyalgia syndrome over three to six months with one of 5 different low daily doses of oral interferon or placebo. This review found that a significantly greater proportion of women given two specific doses of oral interferon experienced at least a 5% weight loss, compared to the women given placebo. This surprising benefit occurred in the women given oral interferon without a significant increase in adverse events.

The World Health Organization predicts that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese. In the U.S. and Canada, half of all adults are likely to be obese within eight years, with only one in five people of healthy weight. The market for weight-loss drugs in the U.S., Europe and Japan totaled around US$600 million in 2005, and is expected to rise globally to approximately $2 billion by 2010.

"While we clearly need to conduct additional studies to establish the efficacy of low-dose oral interferon as a weapon against the growing obesity pandemic, the filing of this patent could be enormously valuable to Amarillo Biosciences in the long term," said Dr. Peter Mueller, COO, ABI. "We will continue to focus our resources on our ongoing clinical studies, especially on chronic cough in COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), but believe that this recent patent filing is a substantial addition to our Intellectual Property portfolio."

About Amarillo Biosciences, Inc.

Amarillo Biosciences, Inc. is a U.S. biotechnology firm operating in global partnership with the Hayashibara Group, which owns 10.5% of Amarillo Biosciences shares and has provided over $18 million in loans, grants and equity investments to the company. Amarillo Biosciences' primary focus involves extensive and ongoing R&D into the utilization of low-dose, orally administered interferon as a treatment for a variety of conditions, including chronic cough (COPD), influenza, and opportunistic infections in patients who are HIV positive. In its 23-year history, the Company has invested nearly $39 million to establish oral interferon as a therapeutic agent. The majority of those funds were invested in clinical trials in an effort to achieve FDA approval for low-dose oral interferon. Additional information is available on the web site at http://www.amarbio.com/.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties related to product development, uncertainties related to the need for regulatory and other government approvals, dependence on proprietary technology, uncertainty of market acceptance of oral interferon or the Company's other product candidates and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see "Item 1. Description of Business" of the Company's Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31, 2007.

Amarillo Biosciences, Inc.