New Data Points To Long Lasting Beneficial Effects Of CEL-SCI's Rheumatoid Arthritis Vaccine

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New Data Points To Long Lasting Beneficial Effects Of CEL-SCI's Rheumatoid

Arthritis Vaccine

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/129505.php

CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE: CVM) announced the presentation of new rheumatoid

arthritis data at the 6th annual GTCbio Vaccine Conference in Vienna, Va. The

data, presented by Dr. Zimmerman, Senior Vice President of Research,

Cellular Immunology of CEL-SCI, indicate that CEL-SCI's rheumatoid arthritis

treatment vaccine CEL-2000 prevents or retards the permanent tissue damage

caused by rheumatoid arthritis. The long term results obtained with CEL-2000

vaccine, for the rheumatoid arthritis, were in line with those seen with

Enbrel

®, a leading treatment for people with rheumatoid arthritis.

CEL-2000 may also offer a number of potential advantages over existing

rheumatoid arthritis treatments, such as Enbrel. Data collected in the animal

studies

conducted with CEL-2000 demonstrated that CEL-2000 is an effective treatment

against arthritis even with the administration of fewer treatments. CEL-2000

is also potentially a more disease-type specific therapy, should be

significantly less expensive and finally, CEL-2000 could also be useful for

patients

who are not able to take or who may be unresponsive to existing anti-arthritis

therapies.

In these studies, mice were injected with collagen on days 0 and 21 to induce

the disease. Once the mice cohorts reached a significant and uniform and

measurable

disease (arthritis) state, therapy with Enbrel or CEL-2000 was initiated and

continued for 28 days. CEL-2000 was administered only twice and Enbrel was

administered every other day for the first 28 days and an arthritic Index score

was determined for both groups. The observation period was doubled from

previous studies and was continued for another 28 days for a total study period

of 56 days.

" It is very exciting to see the reduction of severe rheumatoid arthritis damage

in these animals through a simple vaccination, " said Dr. Zimmerman. " I am

hopeful that CEL-2000 will one day be used to lessen the damage caused by

rheumatoid arthritis in patients. "

Rheumatoid arthritis treatments comprise a $13 billion market. Enbrel, a leading

rheumatoid arthritis treatment sold by Amgen and Wyeth, reported US sales

in 2007 of about $3.2 billion. Enbrel is a soluble recombinant protein of a

human TNF-alpha receptor linked to human IgG Fc. In some cases, human or

humanized

monoclonal antibodies specific against TNF-alpha have also been used for therapy

in rheumatoid arthritis. These therapies remove or inactivate TNF-alpha,

a natural human cytokine required in many immune functions for normal defenses.

CEL-SCI's rheumatoid arthritis vaccine CEL-2000 was discovered as part of work

with the Company's ongoing research and development activities with its

L.E.A.P.S.

(Ligand Epitope Antigen Presentation System) technology. L.E.A.P.S. is a novel

T-cell modulation platform technology that enables CEL-SCI to design and

synthesize proprietary immunogens. Any disease for which an antigenic sequence

has been identified, such as infectious, parasitic, malignant or autoimmune

diseases and allergies, are potential therapeutic or preventive sites for the

application of L.E.A.P.S. technology.

The concept behind the L.E.A.P.S. technology is to directly mimic cell/cell

interactions on the T-cell surface with synthetic peptides. The L.E.A.P.S.

constructs

containing the antigenic disease epitope linked to a T-cell binding ligand

(TCBL) can be manufactured by peptide synthesis or by covalently linking the

two peptides. Depending upon the type of L.E.A.P.S. construct and TCBL used,

CEL-SCI is able to direct the outcome of the immune response towards the

development

of T-cell function with primarily effector T-cell functions (T Lymphocyte;

helper/effector T lymphocyte, type 1 or 2 [Th1 or Th2], cytotoxic [Tc] or

suppressor

[Ts]). Therefore, it would appear that the L.E.A.P.S. construct represents a

chimeric peptide with bi-functional behavior.

CEL-SCI Corporation is developing products that empower immune defenses. Its

lead product is Multikine® which is being readied for a global Phase III

trial. The Company has operations in Vienna, Virginia, and Baltimore, land.

CEL-SCI's other products, which are currently in pre-clinical stage, have

shown protection against a number of diseases in animal tests and are being

tested against diseases associated with bio-defense and avian flu. When used

in this report, the words " intends, " " believes, " " anticipated " and " expects " and

similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual

results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause

or contribute to such differences include, an inability to duplicate the

clinical results demonstrated in clinical studies, timely development of any

potential

products that can be shown to be safe and effective, receiving necessary

regulatory approvals, difficulties in manufacturing any of the Company's

potential

products, inability to raise the necessary capital and the risk factors set

forth from time to time in CEL-SCI Corporation's SEC filings, including but

not limited to its report on Form 10- K for the year ended September 30, 2007.

The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any

revision to these forward-looking statements which may be made to reflect the

events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence

of unanticipated events.

CEL-SCI Corporation

http://www.cel-sci.com

View drug information on Embrel:

http://www.medilexicon.com/drugs/enbrel.php

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