POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Research News & Studies => Topic started by: Common_ground on August 14, 2012, 11:16:50 am
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Norwegian Bionor teams up with German Celgene - receives approval for clinical trials in Germany.
Seems like they will use a cancer drug together with the Vacc-4x to reduce (eradicate?) the latent virus population and at the same time increase healthy CD4 cells.
http://www.bionorimmuno.com/en/News_archive/2012/All/Study+of+Vacc-4x+Combined+with+Celgene%60s+Revlimid%C2%AE+Approved+to+Begin.b7C_wlnU3g.ips
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/study-vacc-4x-combined-celgenes-115900755.html
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Norwegian Bionor teams up with German Celgene - receives approval for clinical trials in Germany.
Seems like they will use a cancer drug together with the Vacc-4x to reduce (eradicate?) the latent virus population and at the same time increase healthy CD4 cells.
http://www.bionorimmuno.com/en/News_archive/2012/All/Study+of+Vacc-4x+Combined+with+Celgene%60s+Revlimid%C2%AE+Approved+to+Begin.b7C_wlnU3g.ips
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/study-vacc-4x-combined-celgenes-115900755.html
This study is not looking a or testing eradication of latent HIV. They are seeing if they can improve immune response in people who have achieved an undetectable viral load but have had a poor cd4 recovery.
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"a secondary endpoint of the study is also to evaluate the effect on HIV viral load, by sensitive analysis methods."
I took this part as a sign of how to reduce latent/virus producing cells or lower the viral "setpoint". I might be reading too much into the press release thou but given they use a cancer drug the procedure seems awfully inspired by recent research of flushing latent HIV.
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As i read Vacc-4-x had some good results in Hamburg, but not a breakthrough.
Maybe the follower Vacc-C5 will work even better.
http://www.bionorimmuno.com/en/Vaccines/HIV_Vacc-C5/ (http://www.bionorimmuno.com/en/Vaccines/HIV_Vacc-C5/)
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Why can't they combine it with Miltefosine? :o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miltefosine
Miltefosine (INN, trade names Impavido and Miltex) is a phospholipid drug.
Originally developed as an antineoplastic (and licenced for topical use),[2] it is finding use as an antiprotozoal drug. It can be administered orally and topically.
It acts as an Akt inhibitor.
It is also under investigation as a potential therapy against HIV infection.[3][2]
Miltefosine targets HIV infected macrophages, which play a role in vivo as long-lived HIV-1 reservoirs. The HIV protein Tat activates pro-survival PI3K/Akt pathway in primary human macrophages. Miltefosine acts by inhibiting the PI3K/Akt pathway, thus removing the infected macrophages from circulation, without affecting healthy cells.[2]
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Hmm, I have been pretty optimistic about this vaccination approach.
But the preliminary results here
http://www.catie.ca/en/catienews/2012-02-21/norwegian-hiv-vaccine-very-modest-results-seen-recent-clinical-trial (http://www.catie.ca/en/catienews/2012-02-21/norwegian-hiv-vaccine-very-modest-results-seen-recent-clinical-trial)
don't sound like a break through.
Perhaps the combination of Vacc-4x and Vacc-5x will bring some more promising results?
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Dr Strangelove the article that you reference contradicts this one"
http://www.4-traders.com/BIONOR-PHARMA-ASA-1413224/news/Bionor-Pharma-ASA-Results-for-viral-load-on-Vacc-4x-14023683/
More specifically, in the CATIE article the author writes: "Whatever impact Vacc-4x had on viral load, it did not allow recipients to remain off therapy longer than people on placebo."
However in the link I posted, the article states "These final results confirm that Vacc-4x lowers viral load in patients with HIV who have remained off ART for at least 6 months," said Vidar Wendel-Hansen, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, Bionor Pharma, "and suggests a correlation between this effect and the vaccine induced immune responses to p24."
Whatever you make of it there it is. I also read somewhere some people were off ART for two years after receiving Vacc-4X.
Best
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In the 2012 Q2 report Bionor mention they have initiated the process of partnership with a larger pharma for phase III development AND commercialization. I think its clear already the method is working but there is alot more work to be done, my point is that they wouldnt pushed for further development and make a bold statement like that with a product not worthy continous investment and work.
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In the 2012 Q2 report Bionor mention they have initiated the process of partnership with a larger pharma for phase III development AND commercialization.
My read on this is that Bionor is securing funding through a larger pharma partner prior to the completion (or even the start) of the phase II trial, so they are ready from a business perspective in the event the trials are promising. I think this is more of a statement about their business strategy than the science. Of course I would like to see the science pan out, but we have to wait for the data.
JM
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Phase IIb trials are already running and have been for quite some time. The results from 136 patients were released earlier this year:
http://www.ukmi.nhs.uk/applications/ndo/record_view_open.asp?newDrugID=5513
The Q2 report can be found here:
http://www.bionorimmuno.com/filestore/Q2_2012Report.pdf
Im hoping for some more data and good news from the conference in Boston next month.
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I was referring to the trial just approved that combines Vacc-4x with Celgene`s Revlimid:
http://tinyurl.com/8nlkhqm
On a related but different topic - Sangamo is presenting on their ZFN CCR5 work in early September:
http://tinyurl.com/8krre36
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Thanks for the clarification and all the updates.
This sounds indeed very promising!