Kinfe Redda

Background:
HIV/AIDS is a major health problem in our society. About 42 million people
worldwide currently live with the infection, 3 million die and 5 million new
infections are registered every year. TechNavio’s analysts forecast the Global
HIV Drugs market to reach US$15.5 billion by 2014. The growth is attributed
to the increase in use of highly effective antiretroviral therapy as well as to the
introduction of novel treatments.

Statement of Problem:
The management of the disease is based on a “drug cocktail” consisting of
multiple antiretroviral drugs. Although this therapy succeeded in improving the
quality of life and the life expectance of the patients, it is associated with both
short- and long term adverse side effects, such as nausea, weakness,
insomnia, liver damage, osteoporosis, and lipodystrophy. After prolonged
usage, the drugs become ineffective due to the virus mutation. Despite the
availability of generic drugs the price of the therapy is still too high especially
for the third world countries.

Potential Solution:
FAMU has developed and patented anti-HIV agents based on synthetic
flavonoids which have shown promising results from in vitro studies in
blocking the reverse transcriptase, the enzyme responsible for inserting the
viral DNA into the host cells. Several compounds were found to be more
potent than AZT, which enables applications of smaller dosages. The
synthesis of the compounds is cost-effective from available commercial
starting materials. They can easily be obtained in pure form with relatively
high yields and long bench stability. Adverse toxic effects are not currently
known however more toxicology studies are needed.

Commercialization Status:
The flavonoid HIV/AIDS agents are currently in the early development stage,
and R&D is currently funded at FAMU by the National Institutes of Health,
Research Center in Minority Institutions (NIH-RCMI) Program. Future work
will focus on the development of the most potent and safe analogs, the
performance of animal studies, and evaluation of toxicology on normal cells.
These studies will further determine efficacy and safety of the drugs and
potential side effects. We are looking for partnership for further toxicology
studies as well as for licensing purposes in order to bring our research from
the lab bench to the drug market