Breakthrough: SARS Hope For a Quick Cure For SARS is Rising

The American Reporter ^ | 05.09.03 | Joe Shea

[riri]

LOS ANGELES, May 9, 2003 -- Chances that a proposed drug for use against SARS will prove effective against the deadly pneumonia epidemic were sharply improved by findings that only insignificant mutations are occurring in the cornoavirus identified as its cause, according to a respected British medical journal, making it a stable target for rapidly-produced "antisense" drugs that prime the immune system to prepare it for the SARS virus and then attack it when the victim is infected.

Corvallis, Ore.-based AVI BioPharma CEO Dennis Burger told Congress in sworn testimony May 7 that he believes a compound newly created by the firm "will be effective" against SARS and with FDA help can be ready "in months" for human trials.

"We believe it will be effective," Burger told the House panel.

The drug, currently named AVII-4179, is being tested against SARS samples by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) at the USAMRIID facility laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., along with other compounds. A vaccine against SARS is also in the works, Dr. David Ho, a co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, told Reuters on Friday, and primate sudies are also underway, the company said last week.

Test results have not yet been announced. Burger did not return telephoned or email requests for comment.

The company has been extremely tight-lipped ever since it provided a sample of the drug to private and federally-funded agencies for testing on May 6, even refusing to provide a copy of Burger's speech to the House session even though it was broadcast live on the Internet. AVII BioPharma stock (AVII) traded lower on the NasdaqNM, down $0.01 at $5.53 at Friday's close and $1.55 off the 52-week high of $7.08 it reached last week.

The study of SARS mutation by a team of scientists in Singapore, published today in a British medical journal, The Lancet, examined SARS coronavirus samples from Canada, China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, four countres especially hard-hit by the virus, which has sickened victims in 29 countries.

Burger told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health that his company already manufactures five different compounds that are effective against other RNA viruses, including coronavirus murine hepatitis virus, which is a coronavirus, and all have been found safe. The compounds are created by using information from the newly-completed Human Genome Project and the firm's proprietary antisense technology, which Burger said can create a "key" that fits the "lock" of the virus. The drug works, he said, by blocking the production of its RNA replication template much as a piece of fabric blocks a zipper.

Burger was on one of three panels heard by the subcommittee that included representatives from various companies, including Medarex, GenVec and Computerized Thermal Imaging, that are developing SARS-related diagnostic and pharamceutical tools to fight the disease.

The downside of the reduced level of mutation, scientists said, is that it may mean the gene as it now exists is well-suited to humans and will be hard to fight in that form.

[dc-zoo]

"Can be ready for human trials in months". Funny they didn't say how many months. Let's hope this is for real.

[EternalHope]

Could be very good news.

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

...rapidly-produced "antisense" drugs...

Developed from the brains of Democratic Senators.

[eno_]

AVI has an interesting method of "programming" drugs. If it does work, their approach will enable them to do it quickly.

[gcruse]

Good news.

[riri]

Not sure. I am not sure if someone(s) are creating some publicity for AVII, making the stock go up and unloading it. Someone made a nice profit a couple Fridays ago when it went from just shy of two dollars to over 7.00. Two days after the last time an article like this surfaced.

I am far too cynical, I know. However, I hope there is more to this antisense.

[mewzilla]

Actually, it was the first thing I thought of, too. Hope we're wrong.

[aristeides]

This is your antisense, isn't it, Betty Jo?

[riri]

This is your antisense, isn't it, Betty Jo?

Yes, it is. Hoever, I think she mentioned two bio tech companies. This AVII and some other.

[blam]

Sounds like good news. I hope so.

[AdmSmith]

Expect many companies and wannabes to publish a lot of hype to impress NASDAQ for a day or two. Why should anyone have a cure for this coronavirus in a few months when we do not have anything for other coronaviruses.

No, I anticipate that the best route is a vaccine, expect it to be ready in 1 - 2 years time. It is not so difficult technically for coronavirus, the problem (=cost + time) is with the FDA.

[The Pheonix]

Read in the PeoplesDaily online that both Pres Bush, Secy Powell and SEcy of Health Thompson had telephoned their Chinese counterparts to discuss SARS and all had offered American co-operation in the fight against SARS

Wonder whether they told the Chinese, ....guess what Santa has for the Chinese people this X'mas....."

[Betty Jo]

Is this my antisense ?

Well, antisense is partially the terrorists antisense.

Right here on Free Republic we are able to see that Bin Ladens cohorts were in at the very beginning of commercial antisense.

The cover story that Harvard was looking for wealthy Arabs to join them in medical joint ventures doesnt float my boat.

The attack on the "boat", the USS Cole by Bin Laden started me off on my search of Alamoudi and Mahfouz,two rich Arabs,who funded the terrs.

When I found these bad guys in ownership of Hybridon, an early antisense company, I went nutso.

OKC Submariner in an email response to my panic went religous on me,and further scared the hel* out of me.

I believed then, as I do now,that Bin Ladens relatives and fellow travelers invested way back in the 90's in companys that would enable them to dual use and steal intellectual properties to design bioweapons.

SARS, to my way of thinking,is from Bin Ladens boys.

Shock and Awe in plain sight.

[aristeides]

Probable SARS case reported in Finland in man who visited Toronto.

[Betty Jo]

Have all the incubation timelines played out?

Will this man have a relapse?

How many recovered cases will continue to be recovered?

What about the lung scarring?

[aristeides]

It sounds as if he recovered well. He may be young, he is certainly European. Both those factors could have played in his favor. More and more I suspect ethnic Chinese are peculiarly vulnerable to this disease.

[The Pheonix]

I notice ,while I was working in Hong Kong at one time that the Chinese hardly ever die from flu ,but lots of Europeans do

SARS infect only at close contact. SARS first started to infect in China.
Chinese people spread SARS to other Chinese thru close contact

The fact that hardly any caucasian gets SARS could mean that Chinese people hardly interact closely with caucausians

[TBall]

AVII has also been working on WNV.

[tracer]

"SARS" will have run its course and disappeared by the time any such "quick cure," as it were, ever reaches the shelf.

But, as with AIDS, SARS will be an excuse for yet more scientists young and old to grow their programs at the government teat. Now I remember why I got out of the research business........