Tom,
I spent quite a bit of time last night going over the National Institute of Health web site in particular the NIAID site. They have a pretty clear mandate to help move any promising discovery including private companies in any way they can including funding. It was very interesting. Basically they will fast track where ever they can. We have come a long way in a few short years. The cocktail of three drugs currently in use to reduce viral load has only been around for a few of years. As always there is a need to find new drugs as the virus becomes resistant. It is interesting the connection with Harvard and Duke. They both receives NIAID funding for HIV/AIDS research and have representation on various research boards (review panels). I wish I knew more details.
Recently we have heard that they have found the source of HIV in Chimps. The disease does not progress to AIDS in the Chimps but it does in the macaque. The macaque is the preferred model for preclinical testing as was stated numerous times in the info I read on the NIAID site.
I also read the phase one study results one more time. Here is a bit of a summary from that study. It is worth reviewing.
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The importance of this study lies in its novel therapy approach in light of the increasing number of drug therapy failures. Advances with combination drug therapy in HIV-1 infection have shown significant and remarkable results in patients with AIDS symptoms. However, recently shortcomings and failures with combination drugs have been reported and long-term cures may prove to be unrealistic expectations. Because of serious side effects of the drugs and the cost involved with this medication, compliance is dropping. Furthermore, there is already evidence that the virus develops resistance against the drugs. Therefore, alternative approaches in therapy of AIDS have become increasingly desirable.
Dr. Sybille Muller, Senior Vice President of Immpheron, says: "The potential of this novel therapy approach lies in the window of drug therapy failures. It can be expected that treating HIV-1 infected patients with the 1F7 antibody will restore the immunity against the virus and thereby prolong the disease-free time for the infected individual. The study represents an important first step toward the preclinical evaluation of the monoclnal antibody 1F7 as a therapeutic AIDS vaccine. Before initiating HIV-1 human trials, a follow-up study with macaque monkeys infected with a more virulent strain is warranted and already in progress."
Key scientists involved in this study were: Dr. Sybille Muller, Immpheron, Inc., Lexington, Kentucky; Dr. David Margolin, Division of Viral Pathogenesis, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Dr. Gregory Alvord, Dept. of Statistics, Dr. Peter L. Nara, Laboratory of Virus Biology, National Cancer Institute; and Dr. Heinz Kohler, University of Kentucky and Immpheron, Inc.
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I too expect to see this stock continue to rise. Remember that it hit .34 last summer when the study was at a very early stage. We know that the monkeys remained in good health through the study. I was told that they fully expected to see some of the monkeys die or at least get very sick because of the extreme dosage they gave them but they remained in good health.
Tom, have fun in St Anne. Try not to break anything.
John |
