M. E. Garza's  Instablog

If you aren't yet familiar with the company, it would be worth reading the profile piece that we published yesterday before catching up on the news they released today.

This morning, the company announced the execution of an agreement with the National Institute of Health (NIH) / National Cancer Institute (NCI) to commence studies utilizing ImmuneRegen's Homspera. Under the agreement, the NIH will perform exploratory studies on Homspera relating to mucosal immunity that might lead to subsequent evaluation in models of HIV infection.

Recent studies have found that the company's an adult stem cell active compound, Homspera®, is effective in enhancing the efficacy of a novel cancer vaccine, and previous studies have revealed efficacy in the space of infectious disease vaccines. The studies which will be performed at NIH/NCI are designed to expand on that research and further define the mechanisms that make Homspera an effective vaccine adjuvant.

The research will be directed by Jay A. Berzofsky, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of the Vaccine Branch at the Center for Cancer Research within the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Berzofsky has published over 435 scientific publications and has received a number of awards, including the U.S. Public Health Service Superior Service Award. He is the past President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was elected Distinguished Alumnus of the Year for 2007 by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was also elected Chair of the Medical Sciences Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2007-08. He most recently won the NIH Director's Award and NCI Merit Award in 2008.

"We are pleased that Dr. Berzofsky and his team are interested in evaluating the impact of Homspera on mucosal immunity, and hope this is the beginning of a relationship that takes our compound into a number of potential vaccine adjuvant studies," said Hal Siegel, Ph.D., ImmuneRegen's Chief Scientific Officer.

Keep an eye on this relatively new, but ambitious player in this space. They may be on to something- or rather, several things, since as we learned: Homspera® has been showing time and again in study results that it can regenerate and strengthen the immune system and enhance wound healing. Under different formulations, the company is developing the compound for different indications. Radilex® is the trade name associated with possible treatments for acute radiation exposure, while Viprovex® is being used for potential treatments in areas such as infectious disease, vaccine adjuvancy and chemical exposures. Both Radilex and Viprovex have the same active ingredient as Homspera.