Nuclear bomb radiation drug shows promise - company
Date: 08-Apr-03
Country: USA
The drug, currently called HE2100, would protect most of a population outside the immediate ring of a nuclear attack from death or hospitalization, the company said. Hollis-Eden has thus far not disclosed other potential applications for HE2100.
The drug cannot be tested in humans because it would be too dangerous to expose them to radiation. But it appears in an early trial to reduce the loss of infection-fighting cells in non-human primates.
Death by radiation is usually caused by a depletion of white blood cells, which protect the body against infection. HE2100 speeds up the body's ability to produce new white blood cells to help replace those that are destroyed.
Death can also be caused by bleeding, as radiation also destroys the ability of blood clots to form. HE2100 helps the blood form new clots, the company said.
Hollis-Eden, based in San Diego, California, released its data at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society for Hematology in Glasgow, Scotland.
The results must now be confirmed in a larger, late-stage trial. If they are replicated and the drug is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it could be available by 2004.
A new regulation introduced in June last year allows the FDA to approve drugs based on proven efficacy in non-human primates, such as monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees, and on one trial in humans to establish that it is safe.
The federal government has agreed to pay companies as much as $6 billion over the next few years in a program aimed at speeding the development of drugs that can combat bioterrorist attacks.
Bob Marsella, vice president of business development at Hollis Eden, said the drug will cost beteen $50 and $75 per course of treatment and that it can be stockpiled.
He said the company could win an advance order from the government worth as much as $750 million.
Amgen Inc.'s drug Neupogen also helps rebuild lost white blood cells after such treatments as chemotherapy. But it can cost more than $2,000 a treatment, and is delivered intravenously in a hospital. HE2100 is delivered through an injection.
