New Experimental Monoclonal Antibody for Treating HIV | Lou Reese
🔴 WATCH THE FULL EPISODE: https://ept.ms/4qDRpDoShow more A new investigational monoclonal antibody could potentially help HIV patients who've developed resistance to other treatments.
Unlike other HIV drugs, which target viral proteins and enzymes inside the infected cell to block replication, UB-421 works by targeting the human host cell — specifically the CD4 receptor on the surface of immune cells. This means, HIV would have a harder time developing resistance through escape mutations.
So far, in limited trials, that seems to be true.
The FDA is set to be taking a closer look at it in early February, says Lou Reese, co-CEO of United Biomedical and co-founder of Cana Life. Show less
45% of the new HIV infections go on to develop something called multi-drug resistance, which means the HIV virus mutates around every single known drug.
And we're the first and only drug, and this has been published in Nature, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, the first, all the big ones, the first ever drug that has blocked all known isotypes of HIV for mutation.
It does not mutate around it.
We block the receptor site and we do that in a relatively safe way.
It is a monoclonal antibody because the FDA wouldn't allow us to test an active immunotherapy for it because they were afraid that there would be some consequences.
So we developed, with hundreds of millions of dollars of resource, we developed a monoclonal antibody at their behest decades ago starting.
And that's why we originally developed the monoclonal antibody because it's not my favorite technology.
I think of it as old.
And I think that the future is active immunotherapies, but we did it.
And now that is actually ready for approval.
And I say that, you know, the last administrations have been very focused on remembrance.
They've been very focused on awareness on AIDS Awareness Day.
They've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make people aware that people are dying.
And this administration actually takes action.
And this is the period on the end of a 40-year story.
So we have historic prevention drugs now to stop transmission.
Lincapovir was recently approved and will soon be to the market PrEP.
This is basically PrEP but a long-term one.
These work, but PrEP you have to take every day and I don't remember to tie my shoes every day.
So that's a very charge, in the medical space they call that compliance risk.
And so people are not compliant and that's the reason why it hasn't actually ultimately worked.
So over 5% of HIV cases in the U.S. go on to develop multi-drug resistance, over 8% in Europe, and over 10% published in Africa.
Having talked with the leading ministers of health and some of the people that are experts there, I believe the number is closer to 15%.
That's what they've told me, but I have not done a study in Africa to confirm it.
Last year, just to put it in perspective, 634,323 people are published around the world who have died of AIDS.
So the answer is all of those people are forgotten.
They're lost.
They're not covered in the news.
These are the forgotten.
These are the vulnerable.
And often it disproportionately affects children.
Because if you're the child of an IV drug user that has multi-drug resistance, guess what you're going to get?
Multi-drug resistant HIV.
So these are newborn babies that are literally given, in effect, a death sentence.