Access Pharmaceuticals Adds Blue Cross Blue Shield of Hawaii, SummaCare and AvMed to MuGard Payer List

Company Provides Update on Recent MuGard Reimbursement Progress

DALLAS and NEW YORK, Aug. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. (OTCBB: ACCP), a biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary drug-delivery platforms to develop treatments in areas of oncology, cancer supportive care and diabetes, detailed the continued reimbursement progress for MuGard, highlighting the recent addition of third party payers Blue Cross Blue Shield of Hawaii, SummaCare and AvMed.  MuGard is now being covered by these third party payer programs with standard pharmacy benefit copayment.

Over the past months, Access has aimed to increase the reimbursement coverage of MuGard throughout the U.S. and has added premier payers to its network.  To date, MuGard, the company's oral mucositis product, has been added to formularies and reimbursement networks of leading insurance companies and pharmacy benefit plans throughout the United States, including several Blue Cross Blue Shield state plans, Amerigroup, TRICARE, Harvard Pilgrim and Humana.  

"We are pleased to see our integrated approach to nationwide reimbursement for MuGard is proving to be effective," said Anthony Mottola, VP Managed Care and Market Access, Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  He continued, "The progress made within our payer outreach programs to attain favorable MuGard formulary position among these payers supports our keen efforts to advance reimbursement and market access for MuGard."

About MuGard:

MuGard is a novel; ready-to-use mucoadhesive oral wound rinse and coating for the management of oral mucositis, a debilitating side effect of many anticancer treatments. Up to 40% of all patients receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy develop moderate to severe mucositis, and almost all patients receiving radiotherapy for head and neck cancer and those undergoing stem cell transplantation develop mucositis. Updated clinical practice guidelines for the prevention and treatment of mucositis recommend the use of a preventive oral care regimen as part of routine supportive care along with a therapeutic oral care regimen if mucositis develops. The market for the treatment of oral mucositis is estimated to be in excess of $1 billion world-wide.  For more information, please visit www.MuGard.com.

About Access:

Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an emerging biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes proprietary products for the treatment and supportive care of cancer patients. Access' products include MuGard™ (www.MuGard.com), which has received FDA marketing clearance for the management of patients with mucositis, ProLindac™, a second generation DACH Platinum in Phase 2 clinical testing of patients with ovarian cancer, and Thiarabine™, a novel nucleoside analog that has demonstrated both pre-clinical and clinical activity in certain cancers; currently in a Phase 1/2a trial in hematological malignancies at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.  

The company also has other advanced drug delivery technologies including CobaCyte™-mediated targeted delivery and CobOral-oral drug delivery, its proprietary nanopolymer delivery technology based on the natural vitamin B12 uptake mechanism.  For additional information on Access Pharmaceuticals, please visit our website at www.accesspharma.com.

This press release contains certain statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include those relating to: our cash burn rate, clinical trial plans and timelines and clinical results for ProLindac, MuGard, Thiarabine and Cobalamin and other product candidates, our ability to achieve clinical and commercial success and our ability to successfully develop marketed products. These statements are subject to numerous risks, including but not limited to Access' need to obtain additional financing in order to continue the clinical trial and operations and to the risks detailed in Access' Annual Reports on Form 10-K and other reports filed by Access with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc.