Conference nyoss1::market_investing

599.0. "A cure for AIDS?" by SOLVIT::CHEN () Tue Oct 26 1993 14:36

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Note 71.187                       News from net                       187 of 201
KAU134::HO                                           83 lines  22-OCT-1993 20:45
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A Possible Cure For Aids
Anthony Blass
Far Eastern Economic Review
Issue Date:- 21 October 1993

        Han Dynasty drug shows promise in US tests

If tomorrow's history books tell us that Chinese and Western 
medicine merged in the 1990s, a chapter may be reserved for 
Prof. H. W. Yeung of Hongkong and Dr Michael McGrath of 
San Francisco.Together, they found one of the most promising 
AIDS treatments to date-hidden in the recipe of an ancient 
Han Dynasty (206BC-AD 221) abortion formula.

It started with Yeung, a Western-educated scientist at the 
Chinese University of Hongkong, located some 45 minutes away 
by train from the glass towers of the city's financial district. 
Gathered there are some of the region's most distinguished 
scientists,including 20 who are using the latest technology to 
unravel some of the secrets of Chinese medicine.

In 1986, a US scientist smuggled into Hongkong a sample of
HIV-infected blood and gave it to Yeung,who had long believed
the AIDS virus might respond to Chinese medicine. He screened 27
herbs in the test tube. Eleven killed the virus.

On sabbatical in the US six months later, Yeung sought out 
McGrath, director of the AIDS research lab at San Francisco 
General Hospital. There, he learned that McGrath had made a 
major landmark discovery of his own. He found that the AIDS 
virus existed not only in immune system T-cells but also in 
macrophages, also known as scavenger cells because they clean 
up stray toxins in the body. This explains why AZT will not 
work long term against AIDS: it kills only virus infected 
T-cells,leaving the disease to multiply in macrophages. If there
was a drug that killed infected macrophages, McGrath told Yeung,
a cure for AIDS might be near.

Yeung believed there was such a drug. For nine years, he had 
studied the Chinese herb tian hua fen, or trichosanthin, which
was used for centuries in China to induce abortions, though no
one knew how it worked. Years of study by scientists in China 
and by Yeung in Hongkong finally revealed the herb's secret:it 
selectively kills the trophoblast cell, which regulates activity 
of the placenta. Kill it, and you kill the foetus.But that's not 
all:the herb also targets macrophages. Yeung gave McGrath a small 
vial of trichosanthin, a purified protein from the root of the 
Chinese snake gourd. Wary, McGrath tested it.

"We thought it was an artifact--a fakeout," says McGrath, 
recalling his reaction after tests showed the herb not only
killed HIV-infected macrophages and T-cells, but left other
cells unharmed. In science, he adds:"If something looks 
unbelievable, the chances are it is. So you had better do
100 more tests." He did.

McGrath and Yeung signed a collaboration contract. Then
McGrath phoned a friend at Genelabs Technologies, a small
bio-tech firm in nearby Redwood City. More tests confirmed
the earlier findings and they applied for a patent,
In early 1989, McGrath published an article in a prestigious 
medical journal in which he revealed their discovery.

Newspapers across the US put the story on Page One. A Chinese 
drug, they said, may be the key to fighting AIDS. In the 
frenzy that followed, a handful of AIDS patients travelled 
to China and bought crude forms of the drug and injected it. 
They ended up in the hospital. Later, three people died during 
unauthorised testing of the drug by a San Francisco gay coalition, 
Project Inform. Many scientists criticised the group and the drug,
undermining the credibility of both. Newspapers, including 
The New York Times, wrote trichosanthin's obituary. For four 
years, the drug has wallowed in obscurity, used by fewer than 
1,000 US AIDS patients. 
But now it is winning attention again as it moves through FDA 
trials. Meanwhile, at least two Wall Street brokerages, including 
Prudential Securities, have learned about Genelabs and its 
surprising Chinese medicine. Their advice to investors is 
unequivocal:Buy.

    Whats the ticker symbol for Genelabs? I can't find it in the paper
    either. Is it an otc stock only in the pink sheets?

    ticker symbol for Genelabs - GNLB
    It's OTC, it even has options...
    
    	/Piotr
    

    Has this stock moved at all or is it still bumping along waiting for
    real earnings. A lot of the biotech's have moved on spec buying a sof
    late. Anyone know if it's stuck in a trading range?
    					Dan D

   2 year equivolume chart for gnlb in postscript format can be copied
   from danger::flaguser1:[leahy.m80]gnlb.ps. no wildcards.

   this is 2 weeks old but the stock closed at 5 yesterday so not much
   happened in those 2 weeks.


   jim