Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Issues Statement Regarding Misleading Blog

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., June 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMPE) has chosen to respond to a Seeking Alpha blog entry posted by Joe Dredly of Greenwich Research.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120516/MM09116LOGO)

The company wants to reassure the shareholder base that the transfer of our listing to the NYSE MKT is intended to help protect the shareholders' interests and the company has no plans to do an additional financing at this time.

Michael Macaluso, Ampio's Chairman and CEO, noted that Mr. Dredly's article "50 Shades of Gray..." purported to be in the best interest of the shareholders when it was clearly intended to damage the existing shareholders by triggering a downward pressure on their stock holdings. It is important to understand that the Dredly article is predominately a lengthy quotation from a December 2011 article by an anonymous blogger calling himself the "Banker", also published on the Seeking Alpha blog. Tellingly, Mr. Dredly did not allow the readers to know the identity of the author of this previous article.

This initial article was authored by Peter Benjamin Bortel, AKA "the Banker" a broker, already under investigation by the SEC at that time, and working with a group of short selling speculators. Mr. Bortel had received a June 15, 2011 SEC "Order instituting administrative and cease and desist proceedings pursuant to sections 203(e) and 203(K) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, Making Findings and Imposing Remedial Sanctions and Cease and Desist orders. The SEC order read as follows:

"The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") deems it appropriate and in the public interest that public administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings be, and hereby are, instituted pursuant to Sections 203(e) and 203(k) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ("Advisers Act") against Pegasus Investment Management, LLC ("PIM") and Sections 203(f) and 203(k) of the Advisers Act against Peter Benjamin Bortel ("Bortel") and Douglas Wayne Saksa ("Saksa") or ("Respondents" collectively).

Mr. Macaluso added: "The Dredly article simply embraces the discredited, two year old assertions of Mr. Bortel, without identifying the original authors name or the fact that he was under a SEC cease and desist order at the time of his anonymous post and that a second SEC investigation was triggered by this same article."

Mr. Macaluso continued. "We are very confident in our science and the regulatory pathway toward approval the FDA has laid out for us. We believe the strength of the company lies with the clinical data provided by its drug products."

"Ampio will release data in the third quarter from our randomized, multi-center, double-blind placebo controlled trial of Ampion for osteoarthritis of the knee as well as initial data that tests the diagnostic capabilities of the Luoxis' ORP diagnostic platform. In the fourth quarter, Ampio will release interim data on the randomized, multi-center, double-masked, placebo controlled trial studying Optina for the treatment of diabetic macular edema, which will be followed by full trial data in the first quarter of 2014."

About Ampio Pharmaceuticals
Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a development stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the rapid development of therapies to treat prevalent inflammatory conditions for which there are limited treatment options. We are developing compounds that decrease inflammation by (i) inhibition of specific pro-inflammatory compounds by affecting specific pathways at the protein expression and at the transcription level (ii) activation of a specific phosphatase or depletion of the available phosphate needed for the inflammation process and (iii) decreasing vascular permeability an upstream event in the inflammation cascade.

Forward Looking Statement
Ampio's statements in this press release that are not historical fact and that relate to future plans or events are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by use of words such as "believe," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include risks associated with clinical trials, expected results, regulatory approvals, and changes in business conditions and similar events. The risks and uncertainties involved include those detailed from time to time in Ampio's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Ampio's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

Investor Contact:
Rick Giles
Director of Investor Relations
Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Direct: (720) 437-6530
Email: rgiles@ampiopharma.com

SOURCE Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.