has biotron solved aids?

Folks who have read today's exciting announcement may be wondering what it means.

First, some background, BIT225 is the first in a new and unique class of therapeutic compounds. It targets viral ion channels. This is particularly exciting for me because as a phsyiologist, some of my closest colleagues were at the cutting edge of developing the patch clamp technique an esential technology for looking at single ion channel activity in excitable memberanes.

As I've mentioned before, this intellectual property is something of a platform technology in that it presents a unique approach to dealing with problem viruses. Biotron has appropriate patents in place to protect and exploit this technology.

Initial clinicaql trials have dealt with the Hep C virus. It's early days yet but we now now that the drug is safe to use and has a good pharmacokinetic profile. These are fundamental requirements for any drug to have even before you can show that it hs any beneficial effects.

We also know, that in the small clinical trial just completed, BIT225 has been shown to be effective against the HC virus. This is pretty much a preliminary result which needs expansion in a further clinical trial that Biotron has planned early in 2010.

It has been known that BIT225 has potential against many other viral types. In particular, it has been studied in vitro (in the lab not the body) in model cellular systems where it has been shown tha BIT225 in combination with other drugs can almost completely eradicate the hiv virus. The new study discussed in today's announcement is not a clinical trial in that it the drug was adminsitered to livepatients. Instead, blood was drawn fom HIV patients and a study performed on their monocytes. This constitutes, as far as I am aware, the first direct data that BIT225 is active against human HIV. Clearly, the siuation in vivo may be different ie when the drug is administered to ahumna HIV patient but you'd have to say, given what we know already, the chances seem to be good that there will be a significant beneficial effect.

Finally, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a whole range of nasty viruses out there, flu, dengue fever etc etc that BIt may be active against. With this in mind, it would seem that the upside for Biotron could be substantial.

Cheers to all long-time believers....