SASSARI, Italy & PRINCETON, N.J.--()--ViroStatics, an Italian/American biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics for viral and other chronic diseases, announced today that the Company’s CEO, Franco Lori, MD, will be an invited speaker at the 2011 BIO International Convention being held this week in Washington, DC. Dr. Lori will participate in a panel discussion entitled "Looking to the Future: Innovative Approaches to HIV Vaccine Development and Immunotherapies" that will take place on Wednesday, June 29th at 10:00 am in Room 151B in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
“We believe that AV-HALTs and therapeutic vaccines will be used together with traditional drugs as we seek a functional cure for HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases where simply eliminating the pathogen may not be enough.”
The panel, moderated by Dr. David Weiner, Professor of Pathology and Lab Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will provide new information on emerging and divergent approaches to anti-HIV vaccines and immunotherapies. Specifically, Dr. Lori will introduce ViroStatics’ pioneering AV-HALT technology, new drugs that are designed not only to decrease the amount of HIV in a patient’s bloodstream, but also to reduce the immune system hyperactivation. This hyperactivation and resulting inflammation are now recognized as not only driving the progression to AIDS, but also contributing to the accelerated aging that continues to plague patients even on today’s potent anti-HIV multi-drug “cocktails.”
“It has been thirty years since the first cases of what we now know as HIV/AIDS were reported,” said Dr. Lori. “Since these first reports, we have made great advances against HIV and learned a lot about how the immune system’s response to the virus paradoxically becomes harmful over time. Aiming at a treatment paradigm shift, ViroStatics is the first mover in developing new drugs that incorporate the latest discoveries in both pharmacology and immunology to optimize and protect the immune system as it fights HIV and other chronic diseases.”
Dr. Lori will also discuss the development of DermaVir, a topically applied nanomedicine therapeutic HIV vaccine being developed by ViroStatics’ sister company, Genetic Immunity. DermaVir is designed to boost immune responses that can kill HIV-infected cells in HIV-positive patients whose immune systems have been compromised by the virus. “Both of these technologies actually partner with the human immune system to combat chronic diseases,” Dr. Lori explained. “We believe that AV-HALTs and therapeutic vaccines will be used together with traditional drugs as we seek a functional cure for HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases where simply eliminating the pathogen may not be enough.”
About ViroStatics
ViroStatics, a biopharmaceutical company with operations in Sassari, Italy, and Princeton, NJ, is focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics known as AV-HALTs (AntiViral–HyperActivation Limiting Therapeutics) to address significant medical needs in HIV/AIDS, chronic infections and related fields. ViroStatics was founded in 2005 as a spin-off of the Research Institute for Genetic and Human Therapy (RIGHT) located in Cambridge, MA.
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