Business Wire - Friday October 9, 1998
In a presentation today at the 16th Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS, Dr. Krishna K. Murthy of Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (San Antonio, Texas) reported the results from a 6-month study which aimed to determine pre and post-exposure efficacy of B4 antibody in chimpanzees challenged with a primary clinical isolate of HIV. Dr. Murthy reported that whereas a control chimpanzee became HIV infected following challenge with a high dose of the HIV-1 primary isolate termed DH-12, one chimpanzee treated with B4 one hour prior to HIV challenge and two chimps treated with B4 one hour post HIV challenge completely resisted infection as determined by a battery of molecular, virologic and immunologic analyses of blood and lymph node samples. No evidence of HIV infection was noted in any of the B4 antibody treated animals at any time point throughout the six month study, and there were no significant side effects noted in any of the chimpanzees treated with B4. Dr. Murthy concluded that B4 antibody was safe and highly efficacious in preventing infection with a primary isolate of HIV when administered at 1 hour pre or postexposure in chimpanzees.
Dr. Carl V. Hanson of the California Department of Health Services Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory (Berkeley, Calif.) has been awarded a three year grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with UBI to accelerate the development of monoclonal antibodies for post-exposure prophylaxis. "B4 has several properties which make it an attractive candidate for development as a post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV-infection. It preferentially neutralizes primary isolates from all geographic subtypes of HIV tested, including HIV-1 clades, A,B,C,D, and E, and also neutralizes HIV-2. It inhibits HIV infection in laboratory experiments even when the antibody is added several hours post-infection, and mice which have been reconstituted with human peripheral blood leukocytes to model the human immune system can be completely protected from HIV infection by B4 even when the B4 is added four hours after HIV challenge. The results reported today by Dr. Murthy are quite encouraging, and represent the first demonstration that chimpanzees can be protected from infection with an HIV-1 primary isolate by postexposure prophylaxis with a monoclonal antibody," said Dr. Hanson.
"UBI plans to meet soon with the FDA to outline clinical development plans for the B4 monoclonal antibody, and to discuss the recent development of synthetic immunogens capable of mimicking the potent HIV neutralization efficacy of B4 as candidate HIV vaccines," said Dr.Chang Yi Wang, chief executive officer of UBI.
United Biomedical Inc. is a privately held international biopharmaceutical company developing immunotherapeutic, vaccine, pharmaceutical and diagnostic products for human and veterinary use.
Contact: United Biomedical Inc., Hauppauge Dr. Wayne C. Koff Sr. Vice President, Corporate Development (516) 273-2828
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