Advanced Viral Research Corp. announced that it was issued a United States patent (No. 6,696,422) for the treatment of HIV infections with AVR118 as a combination therapy with other HIV drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 850,000 to 950,000 United States residents are living with HIV infection, one-quarter of whom are unaware of their infection. Over 40,000 new patients are diagnosed with HIV infections each year in the United States-about 70 per cent among men and 30 per cent among women. Of these newly infected people, half are younger than 25 years of age.

"The issuance of this patent allows us to increase our intellectual property protection in an important therapeutic area," said Dr Elma Hawkins, CEO of Advanced Viral Research Corp. "We previously announced that China granted the company a similar patent for AVR118 in the treatment of HIV infections."

ADVR's AVR118 represents a biopolymer that possesses novel immunomodulator activity. This peptide-nucleic acid, which to date has shown a very favorable safety profile, appears to stimulate the proinflammatory responses required to combat viral infections such as HIV and human papillomavirus and to dampen aberrant autoimmune-type inflammatory responses, such as occur in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. AVR118 is in clinical trials in Israel for the treatment of cachexia (body wasting) in patients with AIDS.