{"id":4797,"date":"2001-09-01T15:01:16","date_gmt":"2001-09-01T14:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moomango.co.uk\/htb\/?p=4797"},"modified":"2014-06-11T17:06:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T17:06:31","slug":"trials-of-immune-response-corps-aids-vaccine-remune-may-end-after-pfizer-drops-financial-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/4797","title":{"rendered":"Trials of Immune Response Corp’s AIDS vaccine Remune may end after Pfizer drops financial support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pfizer Inc. notified Immune Response Corp. on Friday that it was pulling out of their collaboration on the AIDS vaccine candidate Remune sending Immune Response\u2019s stock \u201cplung[ing]\u201d and leaving the future of the vaccine candidate in doubt, the New York Times reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The company\u2019s withdrawal, which Immune Response Vice President for Medical and Scientific Affairs Dr. Ronald Moss said \u201ccame out of the blue,\u201d could put an end to a clinical trial of the vaccine being conducted by Pfizer, a trial the Times said represented the \u201cbest hope of proving that the drug works.\u201d The pullout also leaves Immune Response with only $12 million in cash to further fund vaccine trials. Pfizer, which inherited the partnership when it acquired Agouron Pharmaceuticals, had already paid Immune Response $47 million and could have supplied an additional $30 million. Pfizer said it decided to terminate the partnership because Immune Response, founded by the late Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, had not produced \u201cconvincing evidence\u201d that Remune \u201chelps patients\u201d (Pollack, New York Times, 9\/7). \u201cOur decision was based on review of the data from several clinical trials. Our decision to withdraw … should not be interpreted to mean that immune-based therapies as a class does not merit further investigation,\u201d Pfizer spokesperson Kim Simon said.<\/p>\n

Trial results varied<\/h2>\n

Remune utilizes an approach \u201csimilar\u201d to Salk\u2019s polio vaccine, using \u201cinactivated\u201d HIV to \u201cbolst[er]\u201d the patient\u2019s T-cell production (Dow Jones\/Wall Street Journal, 9\/7). The vaccine is not intended to prevent infection but is designed to help patients \u201ckeep the virus in check,\u201d the Times reports.<\/p>\n

Some studies have shown Remune to \u201cprovoke\u201d an immune response; however, they have not shown that the vaccine actually helps patients, and \u201cmany\u201d scientists do not think using an inactivated virus offers the \u201cbest\u201d hope for a successful vaccine. A trial involving more than 2,500 patients \u201cfailed to show that Remune improved survival or lengthened the time before HIV infection progressed to AIDS.\u201d Immune Response officials said that the trial coincided with increased use of new AIDS drugs, making it \u201cnearly impossible\u201d to \u201cshow a benefit over the placebo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, scientists accused Immune Response of attempting to \u201csquelch\u201d the publication of a scientific paper that described a failed clinical trial, and in 1995, the FDA \u201cwarned\u201d the company \u201cnot to manipulate data\u201d to show better results. Moss said that he was \u201cpuzzled\u201d by Pfizer\u2019s reasoning to withdraw funding because new data, set to be presented Wednesday at an AIDS conference in Argentina, will show that the vaccine was effective in a \u201csubset of patients with stronger immune systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Eric Rosenberg of Harvard Medical School said that the loss of funding could mean a \u201cpotentially good vaccine may not be adequately tested, and it deserves to be.\u201d Pfizer is \u201cvery foolish\u201d to terminate the partnership, Dr. Fred Valentine, a professor of medicine at New York University, added. John McCamant, editor of Medical Technology Stock Letter, said he did not know where Immune Response could \u201cgo from here,\u201d citing the 44% drop the company\u2019s stock took Friday after the announcement. Pfizer\u2019s \u201cno-confidence vote\u201d could cause other potential investors to \u201cbalk,\u201d the Times reports (New York Times, 9\/7).<\/p>\n

Source: Source: Kaiser Network Daily HIV\/AIDS Report<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.kaisernetwork.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pfizer Inc. notified Immune Response Corp. on Friday that it was pulling out of their collaboration on the AIDS vaccine candidate Remune sending Immune Response\u2019s stock \u201cplung[ing]\u201d and leaving the future of the vaccine candidate in doubt, the New York …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vaccines-and-microbicides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}