NIH unit approves $6.6 million to fund Argos AIDS drug candidate study

USA-based immunotherapy specialist Argos Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ARGS) said last week that the US National Institutes for Health Division of AIDS (DAIDS) has approved $6.6 million in funding for an investigator-initiated Phase IIa adult eradication study of AGS-004, the company's investigational fully personalized immunotherapy for HIV.

The news pushed Argos’ shares up 9.8% to $8.97, rising to $9.20 in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Eliminating the latent virus reservoir has been shown to be an essential goal in efforts to eradicate HIV. Research has shown that histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors can activate cells that are latently infected with HIV, making them more visible to the immune system. One strategy to achieve HIV eradication is known as the "kick and kill" approach where a latency reversing therapy such as an HDAC inhibitor is combined with an immunotherapy to maximize the immune system's response to the latent reservoir in an effort to eliminate it.