ImmuneRegen BioSciences Appoints Frederick "Skip" M. Burkle, Jr. To Its Bioterrorism/Pandemic Influenza Advisory Board

ImmuneRegen BioSciences, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of IR BioSciences Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: IRBO), announced today the appointment of Frederick “Skip” M. Burkle, Jr. to its Bioterrorism/Pandemic Influenza Advisory Board. Dr. Burkle is internationally recognized as an expert in infectious diseases in developing countries, management of humanitarian emergencies and disaster medicine, and for his work as a physician, professor and author. Dr. Burkle’s expertise will be valuable in the planning and implementation of educational activities surrounding ImmuneRegen’s Homspera and in guiding the development of Viprovex and Radilex for the potential use in international crises, including those related to biodefense/Pandemic Flu related causes.

Dr. Burkle is currently Director, Asia-Pacific Center for Biosecurity, Disaster & Conflict Research, and a Professor in Tropical Medicine, Public Health and Epidemiology, at the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine. He also serves as Senior Fellow, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Director of the Asia-Pacific Branch and Senior Scholar, Scientist, and Visiting Professor at John Hopkins University Medical Institutes’ Center for Refugee & Disaster Response.

“We are honored to have attracted such an accomplished expert in the area of infectious disease management as Dr. Burkle to our Company,” said IR BioSciences’ CEO Michael K. Wilhelm. “We work well with Dr. Burkle and together we believe Viprovex and Radilex represent promising solutions to biodefense/Pandemic Flu situations and look forward to Dr. Burkle’s counsel in helping us in our national and international educational efforts regarding our drug candidate and its development.”

Dr. Burkle explained his interest in working with ImmuneRegen from the public health perspective. “I’m interested in working with ImmuneRegen because our present defenses against pandemic influenza are limited to social distancing, anti-virals and vaccines. We need many more tools and techniques to help control future outbreaks. ImmuneRegen’s current work with a broad ranging adjuvant is exciting, as adjuvant care is one of those tools that require enhanced studies and research to bring the promise of a chance for survival to the world’s population, especially those most vulnerable to co-morbid diseases and suffering from malnutrition, as we so often see in developing countries,” said Dr. Burkle.

Dr. Burkle is a graduate of Saint Michael’s College (1961) and the University of Vermont College of Medicine (1965). He holds post-graduate degrees from Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, the University of California at Berkeley, a Diploma from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in Health Emergencies in Large Populations, and a diploma in tropical medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He is qualified in Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, and Psychiatry and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health. He is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and received the Emergency Physician of the Year Award in 1999 from the Governor of Hawaii.

Dr. Burkle has received numerous “Excellence in Teaching” and humanitarian service awards. These include the prestigious Gorgas Medal for “distinguished work in preventive medicine, groundbreaking work in disaster management and humanitarian assistance and the training of an entire generation of U.S. and international personnel,” the Cook Award for Humanitarian Service, and the Humanitarian Award from the International Federation of Emergency Medicine. In 2005 he received the University of Vermont College of Medicine Alumni Association Award for Community Service in Medicine for his “distinguished career in humanitarian and military service.” He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee, the world’s largest refugee NGO, headquartered in New York City and was their Executive Medical Director in 1999. He currently serves as the Disaster Chairman, Hawaii Chapter, American Red Cross.