VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immune Network Ltd. (Pink Sheets:IMMFF) advises that Immunitor's investigators presented final results from its imm01 clinical trial and received the Scientific Award as one of the best presentations at the 3rd Asia Pacific Region Conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease being held at Hong Kong Convention Center on July 8-11, 2011 (http://www.2011apr-unionc.org.hk ).
The Immunitor presentation summarized data from imm01 phase IIb trial in Ukraine. Preliminary interim results were published in two peer-reviewed journals earlier this year (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21182457 and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21244690 ). The study, conducted by internationally recognized experts in TB immunotherapy, aimed to compare V5 immunotherapy to placebo among treatment refractory tuberculosis cases including re-treated TB, multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB) and TB with HIV co-infection. After one month, 55 out of 61 patients (90.2%) in V5 group had undetectable TB bacteria in their sputum, whereas only 9/61 (14.8%) in placebo group had negative conversion. The high conversion rate in V5-receiving subjects was similar, regardless whether TB was drug-sensitive or drug-resistant (MDR-TB), or together with HIV. Even patients who failed all available treatment options responded favorably when V5 was added to the TB drug regimen. These results suggest that addition of V5 may produce 5-fold higher cure rate than standard treatment alone.
V5 down-regulated TB-associated inflammation as shown by normalization of mean elevated leukocyte counts, decreased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and normalization of fever. Immunotherapy was also associated with improvement in weight gain – patients on V5 re-gained about three-fold more weight than controls. No adverse side effects or reactivation of TB attributable to V5 were seen at any time. Quite the opposite, V5 appeared to effectively combat side effects of TB drugs as evidenced by reversal of drug-induced liver dysfunction. The completed study confirmed earlier observations that V5 was safe and effective as an immune adjunct to chemotherapeutic management of TB and can potentially shorten the duration of treatment down to one month, even for MDR-TB. These results have attracted considerable attention in countries with high TB burden. Negotiations are now underway in Philippines, India, South Africa and Russia to confirm these findings.
After AIDS, tuberculosis is the second most common cause of death from an infectious disease, with approximately 2 million people dying each year. Current treatments are not fully effective, particularly against MDR-TB and HIV-TB and strenuous treatment regimens lasting for up to 2 years are required.
"Receiving the award at the conference is a great honor to us and especially to our clinical investigators in Ukraine, who conducted this milestone study. V5 is inexpensive, easy to administer, stable at tropical temperatures, and is made from readily available source, which suits ideally developing countries," said Vichai Jirathitikal, co-founder and co-inventor of Immunitor oral vaccine platform. For additional information about Immunitor company, please visit www.immunitor.com.
Immune Network website is http://www.immune-network.com.
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