A new plan for a drug against HIV
A new drug that causes HIV to mutate could eventually entirely eliminate the virus in people suffering from it.
The discovery of a drug to cure HIV is a large-scale business. Currently, the market for HIV drugs has reached $ 14 billion, which means $ 600,000 to treat a single patient.
These drugs are designed to suppress and prevent virus propagation, but have many disadvantages, including cost, side effects and that patients depend on them for life.
Koronis Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company, has found a possible solution with KP-1461, a new drug that causes mutations in cells affected by HIV. If it will work, patients could get off the drug and recover from AIDS.
KP-1461 uses a new mechanism, called Viral Decay Acceleration T, to insert itself into the viral genome and accelerate the frequency of mutations until the virus collapses.
“If you think of HIV as a house made of two by fours, and the genetic backbone of the virus as the foundation of that house, [the drug mechanism] replaces the two by fours with toothpicks, and eventually the house comes crashing down,” said Dr. Mark G. Fromhold, VP of Manufacturing and Business Development at Koronis.
Until now, the company has successfully tested the drug in the laboratory. testing patients will be much harder but it could be a breakthrough dicovery.
The downside is that patients will have to take the medication for a long time. In the second stage of tests, Koronis will use a combination of therapies and will measure the exact time that the healing of the patients takes. The company wants to raise $ 15 million from business partners for further study.
