Hemispherx Biopharma Reports On Annual Stockholder Meeting

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.

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CONTACT: Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc.
Company/Investor Contact:
Dianne Will
518-398-6222
ir@hemispherx.net