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Biotech / Medical : IMNR - Immune Response -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greed Is Good who wrote (226)	2/6/1998 8:29:00 AM
From: Tom Genna	Respond to of 1510

The competition's timetable still falls behind IMNR slightly. Their drug may not necessarily supplant remune. One boosts immune components, other blocks entry into IMHO. For info the following is competition's news release : <Picture> <Picture: reuters>Immunex's Leukine drug may have HIV use ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SEATTLE, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Immunex Corp said Thursday laboratory studies suggest its Leukine drug may have a role in treating HIV patients by blocking the entry of the HIV virus into human macrophages. Macrophages are the immune system cells suspected of harboring the last vestiges of HIV infection that remain after years of drug cocktail therapy. Leukine, which is being evaluated for use on HIV patients, is already used to treat leukemia and other cancers by stimulating the production of white blood cells. Immunex said it presented its findings at the Fifth Annual Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections Conference in Chicago earlier this week. Immunex also presented positive findings of a safety trial evaluating the use of Leukine in patients on stable anti-retroviral therapy. The findings indicated that Leukine did not increase viral load and may have contributed to a reduction in viral load, it said. Viral load is an important marker used by healthcare providers to monitor HIV disease progression. The company also said Leukine was associated with an increase in the number of CD4+ T cells, which are progressively depleted by HIV disease, in a significant number of treated individuals. "The laboratory data suggest that Leukine may be capable of blocking and decreasing in number the co-receptors necessary for HIV entry," said Mike Widmer, vice president of biological sciences at Immunex. "This effect could be responsible for both the reduction in viral load and the increase in CD4+ T cells that was evident in the clinical trial." He said the company will continue laboratory and clinical testing to determine if Leukine may have a therapeutic role in treatment of early-stage HIV disease. Immunex said its Phase I trial revealed that eight of the 10 patients receiving Leukine had an increase of 30 percent or more in CD4+ T cells as compared with three of the 10 patients receiving placebo. Immunex said it has completed enrollment of a 300-patient, Phase III trial evaluating Leukine in reducing the incidence of infections and death among patients with AIDS. Results of the trial are expected in early 1999.