Access Pharmaceuticals Presents CobOral™ Insulin Research at 10th Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting on November 11-13, 2010

DALLAS and NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. (OTC Bulletin Board: ACCP), a biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary drug-delivery platforms to develop treatments in areas of oncology, cancer supportive care and diabetes, announced that it will be presenting a poster today at the 10th Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting, entitled, "Preclinical Studies with Cobalamin™ Nanoparticles for Oral Drug Delivery of Insulin."  The poster reviews the progress made by Access scientists in developing its proprietary oral insulin formulation.  Access recently rebranded its oral drug delivery technology as CobOral™ to reflect the advances made with the technology platform.

"We are delighted to share our recent findings from our CobOral insulin research at this year's Diabetes Technology Meeting," said David Nowotnik, Senior VP of Research and Development, Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  He continued, "Our team has made significant advancements with our CobOral drug delivery technology, particularly in the diabetes area.  We are continuing to explore additional collaborations to further the technology's promise in providing an effective and convenient method to control glucose levels in diabetic patients, and in treating other indications."

The 10th Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting is being held at the Marriott Bethesda North in Bethesda, Maryland.  For more information, visit http://www.diabetestechnology.org/.

Last week, Access received a $245,000 grant for the Cobalamin Insulin program as one of several awards under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP).  Access recently announced agreements with a biopharmaceutical and biotechnology company to develop oral formulations of their widely-marketed injectables.  Access' CobOral product development program initially focused on the oral delivery of insulin and human growth hormone (hGH), two peptides which currently can only be given by injection.  Since presenting promising results at a major conference in mid-2008, Access has made substantial improvements to the formulation technology.  An improved CobOral insulin-containing nanoparticle formulation delivered orally provided a pharmacological response (lowering of blood glucose levels in an animal model of diabetes) equivalent to greater than 80% of that achieved by insulin delivered subcutaneously.  This represents a substantial oral bioavailability, indicating that this formulation has potential for clinical development and ultimate commercialization.  Adaptation of this technology has provided a CobOral hGH formulation that has demonstrated good efficacy, represented by more than 25% improvement in weight gain, when given orally in an established animal model.

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), for the management of patients with mucositis, ProLindac™, currently in Phase II clinical testing of patients with ovarian cancer, and Thiarabine, a new generation nucleoside analog which has demonstrated both pre-clinical and clinical activity in certain cancers.

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.