Subject: Small Study Shows Vaccine in Patients With HIV Is Safe 
Date: Published: 8/13/92 (43 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology:
    Small Study Shows
    Vaccine in Patients
    With HIV Is Safe

    NEW YORK -- A study of an immunotherapeutic vaccine in patients
 with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) showed that the preparation
 is safe to give and sparked a rise in infection-fighting antibodies
 and immune cells.
    Results of the small, preliminary study were presented to
 securities analysts in New York.  The study was first aired at the
 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam and it is to be followed
 later this year by a much larger and better controlled study.
    The immunotherapy vaccine, made by Immune Response Corp., San
 Diego, Calif., uses killed HIV with the outer protein coats skimmed
 off.  Designed by polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk to treat people
 who already have the virus, it is being developed under a joint
 venture with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., Collegeville, Pa.
    In the study of 48 patients, half received the immunotherapy plus
 an adjuvant -- a substance that strengthens the immune response
 elicited by a vaccine.  The remaining patients, serving as a "control
 group," received only the adjuvant.  Patients at higher doses
 demonstrated both antibodies to HIV and immune cells as measured by
 positive skin tests, which are a more general index of immune
 response.
    The companies have consistently maintained that the study wasn't
 designed to prove, nor does it offer, any evidence of effectiveness.
 Such conclusions must await the conclusion later this year of the
 larger trial in which patients will be randomly assigned to get
 either the immunotherapy or a control substance.  Neither patients
 nor doctors will know who got what.
    In trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Rhone-Poulenc's stock
 closed at $52.875 a share, down 25 cents.  Immune Response stock was
 quoted at $21.75 a share, up 75 cents, in trading on the national
 over-the-counter market.

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