NYON, Switzerland, Sept. 25, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mymetics Corporation (OTCBB:MYMX),a vaccine development company, as previously announced on September 23rd 2008, is pleased to announce their preliminary SHIV challenge results on non-human primates previously immunized with the Company's mucosal HIV-AIDS vaccine designed for triggering mucosal protection. The results significantly exceed the Industry standard of 60% to 70% effectiveness to be considered as a promising vaccine, as well as of Mymetics' expectation which was considerable above this level. The Company will continue to do further tests to confirm these results and will present all the results at the Keystone Symposia. With the recent public announcements by major HIV opinion leaders and pharmaceutical companies of their disappointing results despite significant investments in non productive vaccine strategies, attention is now beginning to refocus on the mucosa approach. Mymetics, with a robust IP portfolio and having originally decided 5 years ago to develop an HIV vaccine utilizing mucosal antibody protection as the first line of defense, anticipates a fundamental change in the direction of HIV/AIDS research towards the mucosa solution in the near future.
Mymetics' viral challenge was its second non-human primate study conducted by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science & Chinese Academy of Medical Science (ILAS) in Beijing. ILAS, a globally recognized analytical facility, have and continue to be used by leading U.S. scientists and major governmental entities for ongoing scientific testing. This study used macaques for evaluating Mymetics' latest HIV vaccine formulation and consisted of three differing methodologies of immunizing the macaques. The macaques were intra-vaginally challenged thirteen times with the chimeric SHIV. Female Chinese Macaca Mulata (macaques) were chosen as their infection by SHIV through the genital route closely resembles the observed human infection rate by HIV. The company expects to present the fully detailed results as well as the challenge protocols at the next major conference on HIV/AIDS at the Keystone Symposia in Colorado in March 2009.
Reaching completion of the toxicology studies on animals, the company expects to initiate Phase I Human Clinical trials process in November 2008.
"Considering the repeated failures in developing a sustainable AIDS vaccine as widely reported in the press, we are very excited with the outstanding preliminary results of our viral challenge using our latest generation mucosal AIDS vaccine and look forward to a lively discussion on these 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 in October and discuss informally our SHIV/AIDS results with other participants. We expect to release the complete results as well as the independent verification 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 a further 2.5 million new infections in 2007 alone. There is clearly an urgent need within the global community for an effective prophylactic AIDS vaccine and our results leave hope that the development of such a vaccine is not an impossible task."
Since 2004 Mymetics has pursued and furthered a mucosa approach that focuses on preventing early HIV entry into the human organism during the first minutes or hours following exposure to the HIV virus. Its success is based on proprietary know-how and key intellectual property in matters of antigen engineering and vaccine design that has enabled Mymetics to engineer an effective vaccine candidate in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
About Mymetics Corporation
Mymetics is a biotechnology company developing prophylactic vaccines that combine innovative antigen engineering, minimal human protein homologies and virosome technology licensed from Pevion Biotech Ltd. Mymetics' vaccine approach focuses on eliciting immune protection capable of interfering with late events of pathogen transmission, a generally accepted approach coupled, uniquely and most importantly, with early events of pathogen transmission, such as preventing virus entry across the mucosal tissues, the primary entry door of most pathogens. Virosomes are lipidic vesicles derived from influenza virus membrane that are non-replicative antigen carriers which possess intrinsic systemic and mucosal adjuvant properties. Virosomes are approved in 42 countries and have been used since 1994 for two vaccines in over 40 million doses with no significant side effects. The Company's disease focus presently includes malaria and the human immunodeficiency virus.
For further information regarding the Company and its mucosal approach, please visit www.mymetics.com.
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