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Hard to Treat Diseases, Inc. (HTDS) Reports on Ribavirin Research as Potential Treatment for MS


BELGRADE, SERBIA, July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Hard to Treat Diseases, Inc. (HTDS:PK) http://www.htdsmedical.com reports that researchers in its Slavica BioChem division have advised of some significant findings regarding its research into the use of Ribavirin in the treatment of Multiple sclerosis (MS).

The research team has been conducting experiments using Dark Agouti rats. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) induced in susceptible strains of animals provides the best available model for studying events in MS and a helpful tool in preclinical testing of various substances considered for treatment of the central nervous system (CNS) disease. CNS is the part of the nervous system that functions to coordinate the activity of all parts of the bodies of multicellular organisms.

In summary, these findings suggest that Ribavirin attenuates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (animal model of multiple sclerosis) by limiting cytokine-mediated immuno-inflammatory events that lead to CNS destruction.

The conducted experiments provide rationale for ribavirin to be considered as a candidate drug in the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases in humans, such as multiple sclerosis. One of the benefits of working with established drugs such as ribavirin, which has been in use approximately twenty years, is that the significant experience and history of the drug make it easier to obtain approval for use in new applications, such as the research that has been conducted by Slavica BioChem.

The aforementioned report will be posted shortly on the HTDS corporate web site www.htdsmedical.com and on Pink Sheets under the tab "FILINGS" - Supplemental Information. http://www.pinksheets.com/pink/quote/qu ... ymbol=htds

Dr.Sanja Pekovic, Chief Project Scientist, Chief Strategy Officer Slavica BioChem said "We are proud to be part of the Hard to Treat Diseases and we are grateful for the funding our division has received. This is of great assistance for continuing of our experiments. We have already ordered some chemicals and antibodies with the funding received. This has afforded us an opportunity to straighten our equipment and to introduce a new methodological approaches and techniques (like PCR and RT-PCR) that would give added value to our research".

Mr. Terry Yuan CEO said, "There is great synergy between the two companies Slavica BioChem and Mellow Hope. Although Slavica currently has no revenues, their developmental and research contributions have the potential to transform into enormous and massive gains for HTDS and its shareholders. We expect to be releasing HTDS Q2 financials shortly, and some positive updates on the IP issue very shortly. (see press release July 9, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ for further details)"