Aethlon Medical Releases Shareholder Letter

SAN DIEGO, March 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Aethlon Medical, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AEMD) disclosed today that its Chairman and CEO, James A. Joyce, has issued the following letter to shareholders.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090325/LA88762LOGO-b)

To our Shareholders:

As we advance our Hepatitis-C (HCV) treatment studies in India, we have also been active in our efforts to benefit from new government policies aimed at protecting U.S. civilian and military populations from bioterror and pandemic threats.  This policy shift redefines the primary strategic objective of related government agencies to be the identification and support of innovative broad-spectrum countermeasures, technologies, and platforms. This is a considerable shift from the government's previous focus of attempting to align a single drug or vaccine countermeasure with each pathogen threat.  We remain convinced that our Hemopurifier® is the most advanced broad-spectrum countermeasure, technology, or platform.  

Earlier this year, we were honored to be invited by The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to present our Hemopurifier® as a broad-spectrum platform technology to multi-agency health officials on January 12th at the Washington Convention Center.  Since this presentation, our bioterror and pandemic threat initiative has led to follow-on meetings and presentations, including a formal presentation to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) on February 15th.  While the pursuit of government grants and contracts is not our primary focus, it is difficult to ignore a growing pipeline of new and evolving opportunities to advance our science with non-dilutive capital resources.

On February 8th, we were pleased to learn that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released a broad agency announcement (BAA) entitled: "Dialysis Like Therapeutics" (DLT).  The goal of the DLT program is to develop a portable device that removes "dirty" blood from the body, separates harmful agents, and returns "clean" blood to the body in a manner similar to dialysis treatment of kidney failure. While the device could have an impact across multiple areas of medicine, the target application for this device is sepsis.  The envisioned device will be capable of removing at least 90% of unknown pathogens, toxins, and activated cells from a patient in one day.  As stated in the BAA, targets for removal include viral pathogens referenced to include Hepatitis-C Virus (HCV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Influenza Bio-agents, Smallpox, and viral hemorrhagic fevers.  As we have proven capabilities within the scope of this BAA, we plan to respond with a full proposal by April 1st.  

If you are not familiar with DARPA, their mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research bridging the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use.  Innovation sponsored by DARPA has resulted in groundbreaking discoveries and life changing advances such as the internet.  DARPA envisions that the device developed under this BAA would save the lives of thousands of military patients each year.

If selected to participate in the DLT program, we would anticipate a multifaceted role that would involve teaming with other industry partners to advance our core Hemopurifier® as an innovative dialysis-like multi-use platform technology able to selectively target deleterious pathogens and toxins from the entire circulatory system. We would also seek to expand the capabilities of our technology platform as the basis for a device targeting to reduce the presence of circulating factors that are precursors to sepsis.  Our goal would be to reduce the occurrence of sepsis as post-sepsis treatment strategies to inhibit the inflammation process including the modulation of inflammatory cytokines have yet to be proven clinically beneficial.  It is also possible that we could participate in the advancement of portable blood pump technology required under the BAA that would be deployed to treat wounded warfighters with extracorporeal device technologies including current and future iterations of our Hemopurifier® technology.  Regardless of outcome, it is truly gratifying to witness therapeutic filtration being the focal point of a government contract opportunity.  This is especially true when it comes from an agency as scientifically adept as DARPA.   Once we complete our submission to DARPA, I will be back in touch with an update on other activities.

On behalf of our dedicated team at Aethlon Medical, I thank you for your continued support.

Very truly yours,

James A. Joyce

Chairman, CEO

Certain of the statements herein may be forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Aethlon Medical, Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.  Such potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the capability of the Hemopurifier® to reduce viral loads and other disease conditions or to identify or treat disease conditions such as cancer, including the ability to capture exosomes and the impact that potential ability may have on disease conditions, the Company's ability to raise capital when needed, including obtaining government grants, the Company's ability to complete the development of its planned products, the ability of the Company to obtain FDA and other regulatory approvals permitting the sale of its products, the ability to achieve commercialization in India as a result of the proposed treatment program at Medanta, The Medicity Institute, whether successful or not, the ability of the Hemopurifier® to improve the efficacy of SOC therapy against HCV, the Company's ability to manufacture its products either internally or through outside companies and to create future generations of the Hemopurifier®, the impact of government regulations, patent protection on the Company's proprietary technology, product liability exposure, uncertainty of market acceptance, competition, technological change, and other risk factors. In such instances, actual results could differ materially as a result of a variety of factors, including the risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions and other risk factors detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Contact:  John Salvador, (858) 459-7800 x 307, [email protected]

SOURCE Aethlon Medical, Inc.