New Zealand Company to Develop Therapies for SARS

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, August 02, 2003

New Zealand Company to Develop Therapies for SARS

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

A New Zealand company that has invented an experimental HIV-Aids drug has signed a deal with two US groups to use the same methods to develop therapies for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and other diseases, New Zealand Press Association reported Saturday.

Speaking at the inauguration of Virionyx's new office and laboratory in Mangere near Auckland on Friday, Prime Minister Helen Clark hailed the firm as an example of the innovation neededin the economy.

"These developments at Virionyx are a significant step for the New Zealand biotechnology industry and one that will boost its international profile," she said.

The HIV drug, based on plasma from two special goat herds at secret locations in the North and South Islands of New Zealand, isin the middle of its second round of human trials in the United States.

Virionyx Chairman Peter Sullivan said the company was approached by the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute andbiotechnology firm ZeptoMetrix in the United States.

They asked Virionyx to help in developing antibody and antiviral treatments for SARS, West Nile virus, dengue fever, smallpox, anthrax, plague, tularemia (which can cause fever and pneumonia) and botulism.

To make the HIV drug, disease-free goats are immunized with a purified protein from the virus. Weeks later, plasma, which then contains antibodies proven to kill HIV in the laboratory, is extracted from the goats' blood streams. The liquid is purified and the antibodies are extracted for injection.

The human trials so far are to test for safety and the optimum dose, but lead researcher Bruce Dezube, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, has said the drug shows "early evidence of antiviral activity," even in drug-resistant patients.

Virionyx hopes to test the effectiveness of the drug, a form ofimmunotherapy, in patients next year and, if successful, to marketit in 2005 at the earliest.

Under the partnership, developing a potential SARS treatment will be the first task for Virionyx's scientists -- and goats.

Consultant Doug Wilson said the company would within a month receive supplies of an inactivated part of the SARS virus, which would be used to immunize the goats.

Virionyx makes the HIV drug at its old premises in Penrose, buthas plans for a 4.4 million NZ dollars (about 2.5 million US dollars) production facility at Mangere if any of the new drugs prove effective.

Questions?Comments? Click here

SARS May Come Again, but in Different Genre: WHO

Taiwan Ties Mar Japan's China Interests: News Analysis ( 36 Messages)

Shortage of Electric Power, an Ordeal for China's Economy ( 4 Messages)

Using "E-mail" Concerns Chinese Purification & National Dignity? ( 22 Messages)

US, China Co-operate to Fight Taiwan Referendum Plan ( 3 Messages)

60 Chinese Senior Officials to Be Trained in Harvard University ( 3 Messages)