Subject: Investors Hammer Immune Response After Update on Testing of AIDS Drug 
Date: Published: 6/10/93 (81 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology:
    Investors Hammer Immune Response
    After Update on Testing of AIDS Drug
    ----
    By Marilyn Chase
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    BERLIN -- Immune Response Corp. and its founder, polio pioneer
 Jonas Salk, presented a hopeful update on a drug that is supposed to
 boost the immune systems of AIDS patients.  But investors reacted
 skeptically, hammering the company's stock.
    The report at the Ninth International Conference on AIDS here
 left scientists and stock analysts unsure if the test results have
 scientific or commercial importance.  Immune Response's stock plunged
 $5.625 or 26% in national over-the-counter trading to close at $16
 yesterday.  The ride followed a giddy week of active trading in
 anticipation of market-making news here.  The stock climbed 50% from
 May 21 to $27.25 on June 1, and has swooned since then.
    Immune Response tested the drug in people infected with the AIDS
 virus to see if the drug can slow or halt the progress of AIDS.  
 After treatment, the patients -- who had early symptoms, ranging
 from swollen glands to early AIDS-related complex -- showed a rise
 in certain immune cells.  Antibodies against HIV rose, and levels of
 virus in the blood stabilized, unlike in the untreated control
 group.  But there was neither cure nor any outward improvement in
 their health.  Patients were observed for one to five years.
    "It is safe.  It enhances immune response.  But it is far too short
 a time to say whether these individuals will be well," concluded Dr. 
 Alexandra Levine, a professor at the University of Southern
 California medical school who conducted the research in
 collaboration with the company.
    "Let's not explode this into:  `We have the answer,'" said the top
 federal AIDS official, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National
 Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  While he said the
 drug's early trend was promising, he called the immune enhancements
 so far "not overly impressive," and "quite small."
    "You cannot make any conclusion that this is clinically useful,"
 Dr. Fauci added.
    But the white-maned Dr. Salk said, "We now know the immune system
 can be manipulated."  The Nobel prize winner, who created the first
 polio vaccine and is credited with halting that epidemic, turned to
 AIDS in 1986, and has fought a lonely battle for seven years to
 vindicate his unusual approach.
    Immune Response's product -- sometimes called a "therapeutic
 vaccine" -- takes the whole AIDS virus, kills it with a chemical and
 radiation, and peels off its outer protein coat.  Most other vaccine
 models use only a fragment, or gene-spliced copy of that virus coat.
 But safety concerns about injecting whole AIDS virus into uninfected
 people have barred this product from being tested as a preventative
 vaccine.
    Except for a sore arm or a brief fever, the patients didn't
 suffer any unexpected side effects, or a worsening of their illness,
 Dr. Levine said.
    Immune Response, Carlsbad, Calif., has teamed up with
 Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., Collegeville, Pa., to form a joint
 venture, Immunization Products Ltd., which plans to seek Food and
 Drug Administration approval to market the product.  Rhone-Poulenc
 Rorer is a unit of Rhone-Poulenc SA. 
    Even though the company acknowledged its product isn't ready for
 market, Immune Response officials yesterday adjourned their
 scientific session, and dashed to a nearby hotel for a conference
 call with securities analysts.  Some analysts themselves, armed with
 cellular phones, came to Berlin.
    "There is a logic to the magic," said Dr. Salk, who is a
 spellbinding speaker, in a reference to the complex workings of the
 immune-defense system.
    Drs. Levine and Salk contended the trends shown by their tests
 are moving "in the right direction," and vowed to continue their
 research.  Still, Dr. Salk conceded the tests don't yet translate
 into practical advice for doctors or patients.
    "There isn't anything to be done right now," he said.  "This is
 more a first whiff of spring."

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