Immune Response Corp to drop study of HIV drug Remune

Immune Response Corp. announced yesterday it will terminate a study of the HIV drug Remune, after Pfizer’s Agouron Pharmaceuticals withdrew its development partnership last month.

According to Immune Response officials, the drug “wasn’t meeting the study’s main goal of reducing levels of HIV” in the blood, prompting Pfizer to pull back its $30 million in “milestone payments.” Although Immune Response officials said that results of a Remune study being conducted in Spain “appear promising,” and they plan to continue studies on their own, analysts predict that the company will experience difficulties paying for the studies without outside support. In July, Immune Response announced it had “about enough cash” to fund operations for six months.