Dana-Farber Cancer Institute To Investigate Mechanism Of AIDS Treatment

Medical Discoveries, Inc. and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School (HMS) and an NIH-approved AIDS Research Laboratory, have signed a "Research Support Agreement" to confirm and extend the anti-HIV activity of the novel drug therapy, MDI-P.

Preliminary studies of Medical Discoveries' MDI-P treatment have demonstrated a decrease in the production of HIV-1. The Research Plan will further investigate the mechanism by which MDI-P inactivates the virus, and will define its cellular and viral specificity. Importantly, the DFCI will be testing the activity of MDI-P against resistant strains of HIV and against fresh samples of HIV taken from the patient.

All research under this agreement will be conducted under the direction of Dr. Robert Finberg, the principal investigator of the study, a professor of Medicine at HMS and chief of Infectious Disease at the DFCI.

Dr. William J. Novick, vice president and chief technical officer of Medical Discoveries says the MDI-P research is important because the treatment works on mechanisms which are different from those targeted by currently approved anti-retroviral agents. "We can categorically say that this drug is not an enzyme inhibitor," Novick says. "I feel very strongly that the potential of this drug against the resistant strains of HIV is every bit as good as against the normal wild strains."

For more information: Dr. William J. Novick, vice president and chief technical officer, Medical Discoveries, Inc., telephone: 801-771-0523