A potential treatment for HIV has been shown to be highly effective in tests, according to Medical Marketing International (MMI), which has been working with scientists at London University.
Shares in MMI jumped 20% on Tuesday as chairperson David Best said he was confident there would be a rapid move to regulated clinical trials.
”The tests we have done are encouraging and we hope to be doing clinical trials within a year,” he said. ”If all went well it would probably be realistic to think we could have the treatment on the market within two or three years.”
Data has shown that the drug destroyed 70% of a chemical messenger crucial to allowing the HI virus to gain a foothold in human cells.
Existing drugs, such as AZT and two others that are used together in the triple therapy for HIV sufferers, tend to slow down the spread of the virus, but act once they install themselves inside human cells.
The MMI treatment attacks the virus before it gets inside the cells. A new, effective treatment would be welcomed by governments grappling with the Aids epidemic amid growing fears the virus could become more resistant to current drugs.
About 40-million people worldwide are believed to be HIV-positive. About three quarters of HIV cases are in Africa with about a quarter of young people in South Africa infected with the virus.
Companies such as mining giant Anglo American and drinks group Diageo have said they will give anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive employees.
MMI is a technology management company founded at the Bioscience Innovation Centre in Cambridge in 1988 and which came to the alternative investment market three years ago. — Â