WORCESTER, Mass., Nov. 23, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Generex Biotechnology Corporation (Nasdaq:GNBT) (www.generex.com) announced today that Dr. Douglas Powell, Director of Immunobiology at Antigen Express, Inc. (www.antigenexpress.com), Generex's wholly-owned immunotherapeutics subsidiary, made a presentation on the Company's H1N1 Swine Flu program at a national symposium on influenza. The meeting, Influenza Congress USA 2009, was held in Washington, D.C last week. Representatives from key US and international agencies, policy makers, major pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology were in attendance.
Dr. Powell presented on the Company's progress towards development of a synthetic peptide vaccine for the H1N1 Swine Flu virus during the session on "Alternatives to traditional egg-based vaccines." Antigen Express is employing novel modified peptide vaccines for antigen-specific stimulation of CD4+ T helper cells. As the manufacturing process for these peptide vaccines is entirely synthetic, they can be made faster, in greater quantities and at reduced cost relative to egg-based vaccines. The nature of the peptides used for design of the vaccines is such that mutation of a given virus strain would be less likely to render them inactive, as is the case with traditional vaccines.
Antigen Express also has under development an immunotherapeutic vaccine for patients with HER2+ cancers. That compound (AE37) is the subject of a Phase II efficacy study in patients with breast cancer, a recently completed Phase I study in patients with prostate cancer and a second Phase I study in patients with either breast or ovarian cancer where it is being used in conjunction with another immunotherapeutic peptide. A Phase I study of peptides suitable for an H5N1 avian influenza or H1N1 swine flu vaccines was also recently completed.
About Generex Biotechnology Corporation
Generex is engaged in the research, development and commercialization of drug delivery systems and technologies. Generex has developed a proprietary platform technology for the delivery of drugs into the human body through the oral cavity (with no deposit in the lungs). The Company's proprietary liquid formulations allow drugs typically administered by injection to be absorbed into the body by the lining of the inner mouth using the Company's proprietary RapidMist(TM) device. The Company's flagship product, oral insulin (Generex Oral-lyn(TM)), which is available for sale in India, Lebanon, Algeria, and Ecuador for the treatment of subjects with Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes, is in Phase III clinical trials at several sites around the world. Antigen Express, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Generex. The core platform technologies of Antigen Express comprise immunotherapeutics for the treatment of malignant, infectious, allergic, and autoimmune diseases. For more information, visit the Generex website at www.generex.com or the Antigen Express website at www.antigenexpress.com.
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