Gemmus Pharma Approach

Unlike antiviral therapies which focus on decreasing the production or release of viral particles, scientists at Gemmus are developing immunomodulators as a potential treatment of influenza infections. Our immunomodulator, GP1001, is an agonist of a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) whose expression is dramatically increased during the activation and migration of white blood cells and is believed to play a role in the anti-inflammatory response. GP1001 has been shown to decrease the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in both cellular assays and animal studies and increase the survival of mice infected with the H5N1 virus. Please follow this link for the completed studies.

By not focusing on the virus, the immunomodulation approach has the advantage over anti-viral therapy in being significantly less susceptible to the development of viral resistance. The distinctly different mechanisms of action by anti-viral and immunomodulator treatments make co-therapy at significantly lower doses possible.

Since GP1001 has been shown to be safe in human clinical trials and can be administered as an intravenous drug, scientists at Gemmus see GP1001 as a treatment for serious influenza infections that require hospitalization as either a stand-alone treatment or co-therapy with an antiviral drug, as oseltamivir. Please follow this link to view the market opportunities.