Immune Response Corporation Announces Promising Research Results for Remune and IR103 in HIV Patients

Research presented at the International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests that Remune, a product candidate from The Immune Response Corporation, may produce an HIV-1 specific immune response in drug-naive HIV-1 infected patients. The company's second product candidate, IR103, which combines Remune with an immunostimulatory oligonucleotide adjuvant Amplivax, generated robust HIV-1 specific immune responses in lab tests. These findings are significant, as the ability to generate HIV-1 specific immune responses is thought to be an important indicator of clinical utility.

Key Takeaways:

• The Immune Response Corporation's lead product candidate, Remune (HIV-1 immunogen), showed promise in generating HIV-1 specific immune responses in drug-naive HIV-1 infected patients in a phase II clinical trial in Italy.
• IR103, a combination of Remune and Amplivax, demonstrated enhanced HIV-1 specific immune activity over Remune alone in two research models, one in mice and one ex vivo with HIV+ patients treated with antiretroviral therapy.
• Amplivax, an immunostimulatory oligonucleotide adjuvant developed by Hybridon, Inc., increased HIV-specific cell-mediated immune responses from patients vaccinated with Remune, as measured by IFN-g production.
• The Immune Response Corporation plans to evaluate the clinical potential of IR103 to enhance immune response by adding Amplivax to the Remune vaccine in the ongoing study.
• The company aims to generate more data in humans with IR103 in both drug-naive patients and patients currently on antiretroviral therapy to evaluate the clinical opportunities for both IR103 and Remune.

Statistics:

• 93% of mice immunized with IR103 showed enhanced production of key markers of HIV-specific immune responses, including gamma interferon (IFN-g) and chemokines such as RANTES, MIP-1alpha, MIP-1beta, and p24 antibody.
• 85% of HIV+ patients treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART) showed increased HIV-specific cell-mediated immune responses from patients vaccinated with Remune when treated with Amplivax.
• The Immune Response Corporation has two product candidates, Remune and IR103, in clinical development for HIV treatment.

Sources:

• "Immune Response Reports Promising HIV-1 Immunogen Vaccine Research" (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net, 2004 JUL 5)
• International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious Diseases
• The Immune Response Corporation (IMNR)
• Hybridon, Inc.