Washington, D.C. and Belmont, CA,  March 6, 2000:  Cooke Pharma, Inc. announced today that it had received funding from the PPH Cure to fund a clinical study under Dr. Robyn Barst, M.D. at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital of HeartBar®, an L-Arginine-rich medical food for pulmonary hypertension. L-Arginine is a naturally occurring compound that is converted by the body to nitric oxide. HeartBar is a medical food developed and sold by Cooke Pharma.

The clinical study funded by the PPH Cure is intended to provide “proof-of-concept” evidence that two HeartBars a day increase nitric oxide production in patients with pulmonary hypertension.  Nitric oxide is a powerful vasodilator and platelet de-aggregator.  Patients with pulmonary hypertension suffer from chronic vasoconstriction and platelet aggregation within their lungs.  Previous studies by Cooke Pharma have shown that two HeartBars a day provided therapeutic benefit to patients with peripheral vascular disease, a circulatory condition of the legs, which is also characterized by chronic vasoconstriction and platelet aggregation.  Both the pulmonary hypertension and peripheral vascular disease studies are based on the fact that L-Arginine is the principal substance from which the body makes nitric oxide.

“I am excited about extending our work in peripheral vascular disease to pulmonary hypertension,” said Andrew Maxwell, M.D., the principal investigator of the study.  “We are especially fortunate to be working with Dr. Barst since her Pulmonary Hypertension Center is the largest such facility in the world.”

“We are quite pleased to be able to fund this trailblazing study,” said Martine Rothblatt, Program Director of the PPH Cure .  “Much of the credit goes to the many people who have made generous contributions to the PPH Cure in honor of their friends and relatives.”

“I am quite keen to begin this investigation of L-Arginine for pulmonary hypertension,” said Robyn Barst, MD, Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Center at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.  “The protocol calls for a well-controlled, double-blinded, randomized study.  We hope to learn useful information regarding the biological effects of the HeartBar.”

Cooke Pharma is a medical foods company founded by Dr. John Cooke, Associate Professor and Director, Section of Vascular Medicine, at Stanford University.

The PPH Cure is the largest non-government, non-commercial funder of basic and applied research into new treatments for proliferative pulmonary hypertension.

For further information contact:

Andrew Maxwell, M.D., Cooke Pharma, 650-594-5961 x17