AIDS
SP- 01A : A New Oral HIV Entry Inhibitor
By Akanksha, Pharmacology Correspondent
Mar 2, 2005, 14:24

Samaritan Pharmaceuticals Inc.,a developer of innovative drugs announced today it is rapidly progressing with its PII/III study of SP-01A, a new kind of pill that, Samaritan believes, blocks the AIDS virus before it ever enters the human cell.

Four sites have been selected to conduct Samaritan's trial for HIV-infected patients experiencing resistance to antiretroviral therapy.

In addition, Internal Review Boards responsible for protecting study patients have almost completed their reviews; the Principal Investigators, the Central Lab and Study Monitors are all in place, along with the Study Director, with all anticipating the start of the study.

Dr. Janet Greeson, CEO of Samaritan stated, "When you think about who we are competing against to win, companies like Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Schering-Plough, and being headquarted in Vegas, it makes you feel as though we are playing Texas Hold-em against Big Pharma. If you can imagine, we are holding pocket deuces and they're holding pocket aces, pocket kings, and big slick; none of us know what the flop is going to be and that is the way it is with study trials. Of course, we know we are the underdog but we see the flop as deuce, deuce and an ace and have the perseverance to win; who knows, maybe we will be the next million dollar baby."

Samaritan believes SP-01A cripples HIV's ability to enter cells by blocking the proteins on Human T Cells that would, otherwise, facilitate HIV's entry into those cells.

It is estimated that some 78% of HIV patients are resistant to at least one of the four classes of HIV drugs; and 50% are resistant to at least two classes. In addition, 10-20% of newly infected patients already have resistance to one or more HIV Drugs.

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