Mymetics' viral challenge was its second non-human primate studyconducted by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science & Chinese Academy ofMedical Science (ILAS) in Beijing. ILAS, a globally recognized analyticalfacility, have and continue to be used by leading US scientists and majorgovernmental entities for ongoing scientific testing. This study usedmacaques for evaluating Mymetics' latest HIV vaccine formulation andconsisted of three differing methodologies of immunizing the macaques. Themacaques were intra-vaginally challenged thirteen times with the chimericSHIV. Female Chinese Macaca Mulata (macaques) were chosen as their infectionby SHIV through the genital route closely resembles the observed humaninfection rate by HIV. The company expects to present the fully detailedresults as well as the challenge protocols at the next major conference onHIV/AIDS at the Keystone Symposia in Colorado in March 2009.
Reaching completion of the toxicology studies on animals, the companyexpects to initiate Phase I Human Clinical trials process in November 2008.
"Considering the repeated failures in developing a sustainable AIDSvaccine as widely reported in the press, we are very excited with theoutstanding preliminary results of our viral challenge using our latestgeneration mucosal AIDS vaccine and look forward to a lively discussion onthese results at the Keystone Conference" said Christian J. F. Rochet,President and CEO of Mymetics Corporation. "Our Chief Scientific Officer, Dr.Sylvain Fleury will attend the AIDS vaccine conference in South Africa inOctober and discuss informally our SHIV/AIDS results with other participants.We expect to release the complete results as well as the independentverification of those results at the Keystone Symposia. According to the WHO,it is estimated that there are over 33 million people living with HIV with afurther 2.5 million new infections in 2007 alone. There is clearly an urgentneed within the global community for an effective prophylactic AIDS vaccineand our results leave hope that the development of such a vaccine is not animpossible task."
Since 2004 Mymetics has pursued and furthered a mucosa approach thatfocuses on preventing early HIV entry into the human organism during thefirst minutes or hours following exposure to the HIV virus. Its success isbased on proprietary know how and key intellectual property in matters ofantigen engineering and vaccine design that has enabled Mymetics to engineeran effective vaccine candidate in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
About Mymetics Corporation
Mymetics is a biotechnology company developing prophylactic vaccines thatcombine innovative antigen engineering, minimal human protein homologies andvirosome technology
