Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. has announced further studies in collaboration with US Government-sponsored laboratories to determine the potential antiviral activity of Alferon N against avian influenza.

Previous peer reviewed experimental research conducted has shown that low doses of Alferon N, the only natural alpha IFN cocktail available in the USA, added to the water and food supply of the bird population reduced death rate as well as produced healthier weight compared to birds that received placebo. Typically, birds in close quarters being raised as a poultry crop are exposed to various stressful conditions, which include outbreaks of viral infections and makes them more susceptible to disease. This well-controlled study demonstrated that Alferon N can both decrease the morbidity and death rates of birds living under these conditions as well as produce a larger bird when trace amounts of Alferon are added to the food supply.

The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed more than 41 of the 54 infected people in Thailand and Vietnam this year and forced Asian governments to kill tens of millions of poultry in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease to other birds and man. Infectious disease experts fear the virus will soon mutate within a pig or some other animal, which harbours both human and avian forms of the flu virus.

Alferon N (Interferon alfa-n3, human leukocyte derived) is a highly purified, natural source, glycosylated, multispecies alpha interferon product, composed of eight forms of high purified alpha interferon. It is the only natural-source, multispecies alpha interferon currently sold in the US for the treatment of refractory papilloma infections (HPV) and is also approved for sale by various regulatory agencies worldwide including Singapore and Hong Kong.