EPALINGES, Switzerland, Jan. 19, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mymetics Corporation, a pioneer in the development of mucosal focused vaccines for human infectious diseases, announced today that following the vaccination of human volunteers as part of a clinical Phase I trial, the company’s first preventative HIV vaccine has been well tolerated.
This Phase I trial follows the breakthrough results Mymetics has achieved in macaque monkeys last year. During these pre-clinical studies Mymetics' HIV vaccine provided full protection of vaccinated non-human primates against multiple heterologous live virus challenges, while the placebo group became fully infected. These levels of protection have not been seen before in this type of HIV studies.
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, infected about 2.7 million new people in 2008, while an estimated 2 million people died in that same period. HIV related illness remains one of the leading causes of death globally and is projected to continue as a significant global cause of premature mortality in the coming decades.
Until now there has been no vaccine against HIV. "Mymetics vaccine approach is unique in the sense it aims to build protection at the mucosal layer, which is the largest port of entry for many pathogens," stated Jacques Francois Martin, CEO of Mymetics Corp.
"The start of this first Phase I is a very important step for Mymetics in its development of a successful preventative HIV vaccine," stated Sylvain Fleury, Chief Scientific Officer of Mymetics Corp. The placebo controlled, double blinded, single site trial will study the safety and tolerance of the Mymetics HIV preventative vaccine in healthy volunteers. During the last four weeks, the first people have been successfully vaccinated and the vaccine was very well tolerated. In total 24 people will be vaccinated and monitored over a 12 month period.
About Mymetics
Swiss based, US biotechnology company (OTCBB:MYMX) focused on the development of the next generation preventative vaccines for infectious diseases, with 5 vaccines in the pipeline: HIV-1/AIDS, Influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Malaria and Herpes Simplex Virus. Mymetics core technology and know-how is based on the use of virosomes in combination with rationally designed antigens to induce protection acting on early transmission and infection events, including the mucosal immune response as a first barrier against the infection. Mymetics believes this approach allows it to develop preventative vaccines for a broad range of diseases.
Mymetics has started a Phase I for its HIV-1 vaccine. The Phase 1b clinical trial for the Malaria vaccine with children in Tanzania has been completed, while the RSV and the HSV vaccine candidates are in pre-clinical phase. The Influenza virus is out-licensed to Solvay Pharmaceuticals (now Abbott). For further information, please visit: www.mymetics.com
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