Hemispherx In Direct Supply Agreement With Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center

(RTTNews) - Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. (HEB) said it has entered into a contract with Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, 1400 La Concha, Houston, TX 77054 on August 21. This was after the company was recently informed by BioLife Plasma Services, a subsidiary of Baxalta, that it was, without cause, terminating its sole source contract with Hemispherx before the termination date as it was departing that area of its business being conducted under the d/b/a Penn Plasma.

The company had announced last week in its Quarterly Report that it has encountered delays associated with the supply of blood derived leucocytes essential to the Alferon manufacturing process.

Hemispherx said its team has aggressively moved to replace the Baxalta subsidiary, negotiating for direct supply agreements with various Blood Centers around the country to assure an uninterrupted supply of leukocytes to manufacture Alferon.

These agreements, once entered, will allow the firm to start receiving the necessary supply of raw materials to continue the validation of the manufacturing facility in New Brunswick to produce commercial grade Alferon.

The first such contract has now been entered with Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, 1400 La Concha, Houston, TX 77054 on August 21.

The breach by BioLife was particularly damaging for Hemispherx as it is in the process of re-validating its facility that manufactures Alferon N Injection. The long term contract with BioLife d/b/a Penn Plasma for blood supply is a critical component to the manufacturing process.

Thomas Equels of Hemispherx stated, "BioLife's decision to shut down its Penn Plasma business arm before meeting BioLife's contract obligations to Hemispherx put us at risk. We had to move quickly to ameliorate long term damages and redirect resources, seeking to avoid a prolonged delay in the production of Alferon."

Equels said that by obtaining direct contracts with different blood centers, the company would restore the flow of leukocytes and reduce the risk that this problem will ever reoccur.