Enochian BioSciences Shares Double After Pre-IND for Potential HIV Treatment
June 14 2021 - 1:24PM
Dow Jones News
By Chris Wack
Enochian BioSciences Inc. shares doubled to $8.97 after the
company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted a
pre-investigational new drug request for a potential functional
cure or treatment for HIV.
The company said written comments are expected this fall.
Volume for the stock was 83 million shares at 12:55 p.m. ET,
compared with its 65-day average volume of 258,000 shares. The
stock, which has 47.8 million shares outstanding, hit its 52-week
high of $12.99 earlier in the session.
Enochian BioSciences said the request was based on the results
of a 54-year old man living with HIV who had failed to suppress the
virus with antiviral therapy. The patient subsequently achieved
viral control for 255 days with an innovative treatment of Natural
Killer and Gamma Delta T-cells collected from another person.
During the entire period, no antiviral drugs were given, the
company said. It is believed that the GDT cells, a small subset of
immune cells that can be infected with HIV, could be a key factor
in controlling the virus.
Enochian BioSciences, which holds the exclusive license for the
proprietary technology, said the cellular therapy could be an
important approach to achieve a "functional cure" of HIV,
potentially allowing persons with the virus to stop antiviral
treatment for extended periods of time.
The pre-IND submission requested that the novel strategy be
extended to persons with HIV who have achieved suppression of the
virus with antiviral treatment.
Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 14, 2021 13:15 ET (17:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.