Subject: Imreg Touts an Immune-System Booster As AIDS Treatment
Date: Published: 2/9/87 114 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Imreg Touts an Immune-System Booster
   As AIDS Treatment; Skepticism Abounds
    ---
   By Dianna Solis
   Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

   From an unlikely backwater of the scientific world, tiny
Imreg Inc. is betting it will produce one of the first
commercial treatments for acquired immune deficiency
syndrome.
   The six-year-old New Orleans-based biotechnology concern
today places itself on the "cutting edge" of immunology based
on its drug's potential applicability in the treatment of
AIDS and of other diseases.  But in the AIDS research field,
which abounds with skepticism, Imreg is receiving a full dose
as it plunges into final testing of a drug to boost the
AIDS-virus carrier's ability to fight the disease by
strengthening the immune system.  Many other experimental
drugs focus on combating the complex AIDS virus itself.
   The skepticism has several causes.  Imreg has refused to
release the chemical composition of its so-called
immunoregulator, Imreg-1, as many of its rivals in the
high-stakes rush to market have done.  In addition,
researchers privately have questioned some of the methodology
and preliminary results of the company's early clinical
trials.
   On top of everything else, Imreg, which went public three
years ago, lately has been the target of persistent,
large-scale short-selling on the national over-the-counter
market.  In a short sale, an investor borrows stock and sells
it, hoping to buy it back later at a lower price.  As of the
end of January, 7.9% of the company's stock was sold short,
and the National Association of Securities Dealers has begun
an investigation.
   But to A. Arthur Gottlieb, a former Harvard Medical School
professor and Imreg's president and chief executive officer,
criticism and outright disbelief simply go with the job of
trying to commercialize an answer to an extraordinary
public-health problem.
   "I think it is fair criticism," Dr. Gottlieb says.  But he
adds, "We are very excited about what we know, and we think
there is going to be substantial interest in it when it is
disclosed."
   Imreg says it has withheld details of the drug's
composition because patent applications on Imreg-1
derivatives are still pending here and abroad.  And the
company insists it will divulge its final test results only
at scientific meetings or in medical journals, in keeping
with medical protocol.
   Nevertheless, Imreg has made a few fans in the investment
community.  As David Garcia, an analyst with Howard, Weil,
Labouisse & Friedrichs, a New Orleansbased brokerage that
makes a market in the stock, said, "There is more than a
passing possibility that we are witnessing one of those
once-in-the-decade breakthroughs."
   A larger number of investment advisers that follow Imreg
base their advice, in part, on AIDS researchers' conviction
that anti-viral treatments should be the primary means of
attacking the disease.  One, Michael Connor of Balfour
Securities, New York, explained, "we feel ...  the drug
hasn't progressed far enough in testing to have any sense of
confidence yet."
   On Friday, Imreg reported that its fourth-quarter net loss
widened to $728,906 from $415,333 a year earlier.  For the
full year, Imreg posted a loss of $2.1 million, compared with
a loss of $1.3 million in 1985.  Imreg has spent about $5
million over the past six years to develop its drug.
   AIDS researchers generally agree that a double-fisted
approach is needed to fight AIDS:  one drug to combat the AIDS
virus and a second, such as Imreg-1, to repair the ravaged
immune system.
   Imreg describes its drug as a naturally occuring substance
derived from human white blood cells.  It is believed to
enhance the function of T-4 helper cells, which initiate and
regulate most immune-system functions.
   The company said results from its earlier clinical trials
in which participants were given injections of antigens, or
irritating foreign substances, indicate that Imreg-1 had
restored an immune response in 15 of 29 cases.
   Imreg has begun phase-3 trials for efficacy, using 150
patients diagnosed as having AIDS or a pre-AIDS condition
called AIDS-related complex, or ARC. The so-called
double-blind tests, in which onethird of participants are
injected with a placebo, are expected to conclude by year's
end.  Dr. Gottlieb says the company plans to apply for
marketing approval from the Food and Drug Administration as
soon as analysis of the data is complete and that
"appropriate discussions" with pharmaceutical companies have
begun.
   Despite the preliminary results, many researchers remain
lukewarm, noting that, among other things, Imreg didn't use a
placebo-control group in phase-2 testing.
   Dr. Gottlieb responds that researchers told him it would
be difficult to obtain AIDS-virus carriers who would be
willing to participate in trials involving placebo
injections.  He also noted that placebo-control groups aren't
always used in earlier, phase-2, tests.
   Also, institutions involved in current testing of Imreg-1
express optimism.  "I think the preliminary data from Imreg
justifies the third test," says Dr. Michael Lederman, an
immunologist at University Hospitals of Cleveland.  He cites
positive results with a related substance in his previous
AIDS research, which is described in the current Journal of
the American Medical Association.

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