AIDS Drug Maker Sees 12% Rise in Stock
Immune Response Corp. shares rose 12% on Wednesday after the company said its AIDS drug Remune might help stimulate the immune response against HIV in patients taking other AIDS drugs.
Shares of the San Diego-based biotechnology company gained $1.25 to close at $9.94 on Nasdaq.
The Immune news helped stoke another rally in biotech stocks in general. The sector has been resurging since late May. The Amex biotech index gained 2.1% on Wednesday and is up 60% since late May.
The company said blood tests from patients in a Phase II clinical trial of Remune indicated increased activity of cytoxic T lymphocytes, or “killer” T cells, against HIV. Killer T cells are white blood cells that can kill virus-infected cells directly, as part of the immune system.
The company analyzed blood samples from a small group of patients participating in a two-year trial conducted at 13 clinical centers in Spain. The trial enrolled 243 HIV-infected patients already taking potent antiretroviral therapies, typically a multiple-drug regimen that included AZT and protease inhibitors.
Unlike traditional AIDS drugs, which target the virus, Remune is designed to boost the immune system’s ability to fight HIV. Over time, people with HIV lose the immune cells that are best able to respond to the virus, even if their infection is being adequately controlled with combination therapy.
Lab tests have indicated the drug boosts levels of these important cells, and earlier research in patients suggested the drug might help, when used with combination therapy, to lower HIV levels in the blood. Still, research has yet to show that the drug helped patients remain healthier.
In May 1999, Immune Response, and its partner, Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc., now owned by Pfizer Inc., stopped a 2,500-patient study because trial results showed that adding Remune to HIV combination therapies didn’t boost the efficacy of the drug cocktails.
This month, Immune Response and Agouron said the National Institutes of Health had halted enrollment of patients in their Phase III study designed to test whether the drug can improve control of HIV over time. The decision to suspend the trial was based on new data, from a subgroup of the 2,500-patient study, that showed Remune had no effect on controlling HIV, said Elizabeth Adams, medical officer for the division of AIDS at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
“We didn’t want, at the end of two years, to end up with a study where we couldn’t answer the question: ‘Does this reduce the number of viral relapses by 50%?’ ” Adams said.
NIH has asked the research team to redesign the study or develop a new one.
