Business Wire - December 3, 2008
CytoDyn's patent portfolio protects a platform method of treating HIV/AIDS as a first step toward modernizing global healthcare in an environment with finite resources.
Treating Infections
When the environment turns toxic for some particular form of life, that life-form either goes extinct or evolves into a new species that is adapted to the new environment, a process referred to as natural selection. Disease-causing germs tend to be hardy and adaptive and, as such, usually do not go extinct. Rather, the widespread use of antimicrobial drugs to destroy germs will cause those germs to evolve into drug-resistant species. The traditional approach to this problem has been an unending chain of new drugs to treat the germs that have become resistant to the old drugs until such time as the germs become resistant to the new drugs, and so on. This approach has maintained long-term profitability for the drug companies while escalating the costs of healthcare.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, this traditional way of dealing with natural selection cannot go on indefinitely. There is only a finite number of chemical structures that can be used to kill germs. Despite the eventual failure of this approach, the medical-pharmaceutical-regulatory complex has resisted innovation for the same reason that the American automobile manufacturers were slow to admit to the need for fuel-efficient vehicles, despite a dwindling supply of oil. For one thing, retooling requires a substantial capital investment. For another, innovation marginalizes the engineers and managers whose expertise centers on the designing, manufacturing, and marketing of traditional products.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
HIV has an evolutionary advantage in that it mutates rapidly and spontaneously into hundreds of new species. (This is one reason attempts to develop an effective AIDS vaccine have failed.) As a consequence, HIV can become resistant to new drugs much faster than most germs can. Fortunately, HIV belongs to a large class of germs that do not cause disease directly but only because of the response of the human immune system. Other familiar diseases that belong in this category include serum hepatitis and Lyme arthritis. In scholarly journals that strive for scientific rigor you will never read that HIV "causes" AIDS or that Borrelia burgdorferi "causes" Lyme arthritis. Rather, these are referred to as the "infectious agents."
Diseases that have infectious agents can be treated in two different ways. One is the traditional method of killing the germ, and the other is to modulate the immune response so it does not cause disease. Using both methods would surely be the most effective. In practice, however, one or the other is used depending upon the pipelines of the pharmaceutical companies with the resulting indoctrination of healthcare providers, researchers, and regulators. While HIV disease has traditionally been treated only with antiviral drugs that kill the virus, the gold standard for treating Hepatitis B is the biologic agent interferon-alpha, an immune modulator that protects liver cells from the immune response to the virus.
About Cytolin(R)
The Company's lead product Cytolin(R) is a monoclonal antibody that blocks a weakness in the human immune system so it can control HIV infection as effectively as other species of primates can control it. Because the immune system suppresses all species of HIV, including drug-resistant species, Cytolin(R) is intended for use in combination with antiviral drugs. By suppressing drug-resistant species of HIV as they emerge, Cytolin(R) should extend the time the antiviral drugs are effective, thereby compensating for natural selection.
Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are not historical facts. CytoDyn's management makes forward-looking statements concerning the Company's expected future operations, performance and other developments. These forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and projections and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, the failure of preliminary results from clinical studies to reflect the results from more comprehensive studies. There can be no assurance that such risks and uncertainties, or other factors, will not affect the accuracy of such forward-looking statements. It is impossible to identify all the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by CytoDyn. They include, but are not limited to, government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, victimization by white-collar offenders, and the effects of adverse publicity, litigation, competition, and other factors that may be identified from time to time in the Company's announcements.
Contacts
CytoDyn, Inc. | Stacia Andrews or Corinne Allen, 1-505-988-5520
081203
BW081211
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