Addimmune, the newest gene therapy company, was founded with the goal of proving an HIV cure and expanding treatment access. Building on early success in humans, this company strives to free people living with HIV using the latest biotechnology.
HIV and the potential for a cure
HIV is a retrovirus with no known cure. We want to change that. While the replication of HIV can be inhibited by modern antiretroviral therapies, HIV can hide in the genes of infected cells and reactivate when antiretroviral treatment is interrupted. Treatment with traditional drugs can therefore only pause the problem, rather than solve it. Modern antiretroviral drugs have transformed HIV from a death sentence to a manageable condition, but they are not without side effects and must be taken for life – prompting us to reimagine the standard of care for HIV.
How Addimmune came to be
Addimmune’s sole purpose is bringing AGT103-T, a potential cure for HIV, to market. This innovative gene therapy was designed by American Gene Technologies®, a biotech company working to cure infectious diseases, monogenic diseases, and cancers. After a successful Phase I trial, the potential for AGT103-T to functionally cure people living with HIV became clear, warranting the creation of its own dedicated company. Addimmune was created to progress through the rest of the human trials and, if successful, maximize access to this first-in-class functional cure for HIV.
AGT103-T is a completely new class of HIV therapy made from modified immune cells. The modifications given to T cells by AGT103-T enhance the T cells’ HIV resistance, allowing them to turn the tables on HIV. Suddenly, the immune system can kill HIV but HIV cannot infect the immune system. People who are naturally resistant to HIV have been known to suppress HIV without antiretroviral medications, so by packaging their form of HIV resistance along with our patented HIV-interrupting genes, we hope to offer a solution to the HIV epidemic.
What will Addimmune do?
Addimmune is building the relationships necessary to facilitate the smooth completion of clinical trials, scale manufacturing, and maximize treatment access. Later-stage clinical trials will take place over a wider geographic area, and talks with regulatory agencies are critical in the journey to market approval. And, if success is observed in later stage clinical trials, partnerships with manufacturing organizations, patient advocacy groups, benefit managers and even government bodies will be pivotal to maximizing treatment access. With each passing day, Addimmune is collecting more data about how AGT103-T works within the human body; stepping closer towards advancing HIV science and potentially developing a cure for HIV.
If you're interested in being a part of a potentially world-altering project, check out Addimune’s careers page and submit your resume.
