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[press release] CytoDyn Joins Fight Against Bird Flu

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  • [press release] CytoDyn Joins Fight Against Bird Flu

    U.S. Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) Calls Effort Promising for State's Economy

    Santa Fe, NM ? July 19, 2006 ? CytoDyn, Inc. (OTCBB: CYDY) has licensed
    an extensive portfolio of patents and entered into certain sponsored
    research agreements to add DNA plasmids to its product-development
    pipeline. Over the past decade, DNA plasmids have been intensively
    studied by academic institutions and have been characterized in the
    literature as a potential breakthrough in fighting influenza (the flu).

    CytoDyn, which is headquartered in New Mexico, plans to eventually
    manufacture its entire drug pipeline in that State and has been in discussions with Kirtland Technology Park in Albuquerque, NM as a preferred site.

    ?This has the potential to be very promising for New Mexico?s economy
    and our national quest to improve global preparedness against a
    pandemic,? according to Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM). ?New Mexico is one
    of the best places in the world for biotechnology R&D, and I believe it
    will be an environment conducive for the success of CytoDyn. I am
    pleased the firm intends to manufacture its product at Kirtland
    Technology Park, which will add to the economic diversity our State
    needs,? added Domenici who serves on the Senate Homeland Security and
    Governmental Affairs Committee.

    ?Because the flu virus keeps changing as it jumps back and forth between
    birds and mammals, new vaccines must continually be created,? according
    to CytoDyn?s CEO Allen D. Allen. Given the limited infrastructure for
    manufacturing vaccines, and the possibility of problems occurring at
    various points along the complex delivery stream, shortages of vaccines
    remain a persistent possibility. For the same reason, it is difficult to
    stockpile a sufficient supply of vaccine for potential public-health
    emergencies.
    Results from clinical studies suggest that the H5N1 ?bird flu? vaccine
    produced for the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases
    could require a dose that is an order of magnitude higher.

    ?CytoDyn hopes to maintain adequate supplies of influenza vaccines by
    developing a polyvalent line of DNA-based primers that could make the
    vaccines more potent, thereby requiring a smaller dose in each flu shot
    and extending the reach of the available supply,? Allen explained. For
    more detailed information and tutorials on vaccines and the flu, please
    visit our web site at www.cytodyn.com where you will also find helpful
    links to other public and private sources of information.
    Disclaimers

    DNA plasmids are still in pre-clinical development, and there is no
    guarantee that a safe and effective product can be developed. Even if
    such a product were successfully developed, mutations of the virus or
    other factors could render the product of little or no economic value.
    Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts.
    The Company's management makes forward looking statements concerning the
    Company's expected future operations, performance and other
    developments. These forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates
    based upon current information and involve a number of risks and
    uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such risks and
    uncertainties, or other factors, will not affect the accuracy of such
    forward-looking statements. It is impossible to identify all factors
    that could cause actual results to differ materially from those
    estimated by the Company. They include, but are not limited to,
    government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, victimization by
    white-collar offenders, and the effects of adverse publicity,
    litigation, competition, and other factors that may be identified from
    time to time in the Company's announcements.

    Source:
    CytoDyn, Inc.

  • #2
    [press release] UMASS MEDICAL SCHOOL ANNOUNCES LICENSE AND RESEARCH AGREEMENTS

    WORCESTER, Mass. ? The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS)
    today announced license and sponsored research agreements with CytoDyn
    Inc. to support the ongoing work at UMMS to develop a novel DNA-based
    vaccine aimed at the seasonal flu and the potentially pandemic avian
    flu.

    CytoDyn will fund research on flu vaccine candidates developed by Shan
    Lu, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and leader of the UMMS DNA-based
    vaccine efforts. Dr. Lu was part of the UMMS team which pioneered the
    concept of DNA-based flu vaccines in the early 1990s. ?We are glad to
    be working with CytoDyn to advance the development of these DNA vaccine
    candidates for seasonal and the potentially pandemic avian flu,? Dr. Lu
    said. ?We still have a lot of important work to do, but we are hopeful
    that DNA-based vaccines may emerge as an important new technology to
    prevent many infectious diseases around the world.?

    In addition to sponsoring research in Dr. Lu?s lab, CytoDyn has licensed
    certain patent rights related to the DNA vaccines Dr. Lu has developed
    for avian flu, as well as for the seasonal circulating flu strains that
    already infect human beings. CytoDyn has also licensed patent rights to
    the underlying DNA vaccine technology platform developed at UMMS in the
    1990s by former UMMS Professor Harriet Robinson, PhD (now the Asa Griggs
    Candler Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University),
    in collaboration with Robert G. Webster, PhD, at St. Jude Children?s
    Research Hospital in Tennessee. That research is widely viewed as
    seminal work in the development of DNA-based flu vaccines. Dr. Lu was a
    colleague in Dr. Robinson?s lab at the time, and has continued to
    advance the science of DNA vaccine technology in his own lab at UMMS.

    UTEK, a specialty finance company focused on technology transfer,
    facilitated CytoDyn?s acquisition of the DNA vaccine technology from the
    UMMS.

    Dr. Lu said he expects it will take approximately 12 months to complete
    the next phase of pre-clinical research and analysis on the flu DNA
    vaccine candidates CytoDyn has licensed. If all goes well in those
    studies, UMMS and CytoDyn expect to seek approval from the U.S. Food and
    Drug Administration to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial to test the safety
    and immunogenicity of the DNA-based vaccines in people.

    # # #

    About UMMS
    The University of Massachusetts Medical School, one of the fastest
    growing academic health centers in the country, has built a reputation
    as a world-class research institution, consistently producing noteworthy
    advances in clinical and basic research. The Medical School attracts
    more than $174 million in research funding annually, 80 percent of which
    comes from federal funding sources. For more information visit
    Welcome to UMass Chan Medical School, the commonwealth's first and only public academic health sciences center.


    About CytoDyn Inc.
    CytoDyn, Inc. is a Colorado corporation with its home office in Santa
    Fe, NM. The Company's shares are traded on the Over The Counter Bulletin
    Board under the symbol CYDY. "Cytolin" and "CytoDyn" (as used to
    identify a particular class of products) are the registered trademarks
    of CytoDyn, Inc. Our graphic logo is the registered mark of CytoDyn,
    Inc.

    Contact:
    Michael Cohen
    508-856-2000
    michael.cohen@umassmed.edu

    Comment


    • #3
      [press release] CytoDyn Briefs Shareholders On Competing Flu Vaccines

      SANTA FE, N.M.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 2006--CytoDyn, Inc. (OTCBB:CYDY - News) has briefed its shareholders on flu vaccines that compete with the DNA plasmids being developed by the company's wholly owned subsidiary Advanced Influenza Technologies, Inc. (AITI) under license from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.
      According to CytoDyn's CEO, Allen D. Allen, ordinary vaccines contain altered copies of the virus and, therefore, require a source for growing out large quantities of the wild, disease-causing virus for the raw material. This makes manufacturing more difficult, in part by imposing stringent safeguards to prevent contamination of the product. A more important problem, according to Allen, is "antigenic drift," the way a flu virus changes slightly as it replicates and mutates in the environment.

      The H5N1 bird flu virus is very poor at infecting humans. Despite the ubiquitous and spreading presence of this virus around the world, there are only a few hundred known cases of human infection, Allen pointed out. Public health officials are nonetheless concerned because the virus may change to more readily infect humans. The 1957 pandemic of Asian Flu, which killed an estimated two million people worldwide, is known to have arisen when a bird flu virus combined with a human flu virus.

      One advantage of DNA plasmids is that no virus is needed for manufacturing this type of product. Another advantage is that the DNA for multiple species of flu virus can be combined to produce a polyvalent injection (www.cytodyn.com/dna_plasmids.htm). This could be necessary if antigenic drift reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine recently announced as being in development at GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK - News) or flu vaccines in the pipeline at French-based Sanofi Aventis (NYSE:SNY - News). Absent the possibility of such an antigenic drift, few public health officials would be concerned about H5N1, according to Allen.

      Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. The Company's management makes forward looking statements concerning the Company's expected future operations, performance and other developments. These forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such risks and uncertainties, or other factors, will not affect the accuracy of such forward-looking statements. It is impossible to identify all factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the Company. They include, but are not limited to, government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, victimization by white-collar offenders and the effects of adverse publicity, litigation, competition and other factors that may be identified from time to time in the Company's announcements.


      Contact:
      CytoDyn, Inc.
      Mike Orshan, 505-930-0660

      Comment

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