VIENNA, Va., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE Amex: CVM), a developer of vaccines and therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and a late-stage oncology company, announced today the start of the Company's first clinical study for hospitalized H1N1 patients at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Johns Hopkins). The study is being led by Principal Investigator Jonathan M. Zenilman, MD, Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases Division, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. This initial study will involve taking blood from 20 hospitalized, laboratory-confirmed H1N1 patients and activating their cells with the LEAPS-H1N1 investigational therapy in order to assess the cells' response as the basis for the planned future treatment of this patient population under a next-stage clinical trial protocol. In parallel, the study will involve taking blood from 20 healthy individuals not infected with H1N1 and activating their cells with the LEAPS-H1N1 investigational therapy to serve as a control for the patient group in the study. In September, the Company announced that the FDA had indicated that the Company could commence this study. In order for FDA to fully consider a next-stage clinical trial to evaluate LEAPS-H1N1 treatment of hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed H1N1 Pandemic Flu under an Exploratory IND, FDA has asked CEL-SCI to submit a detailed follow-up regulatory filing with extensive additional data. "We are pleased that we have been able to move so fast with this first study of our LEAPS-H1N1 treatment," said Geert Kersten, CEL-SCI's Chief Executive Officer. "As we move forward, we hope that our investigational immunotherapy can be shown to modulate patients' immune responses to be effective without the cytokine storm that CEL-SCI's scientists believe may be responsible for so many deaths." The initiation of CEL-SCI's rapidly-accelerated LEAPS-H1N1 clinical development program builds on CEL-SCI's pioneering work with its LEAPS technology in the context of H1N1. CEL-SCI's L.E.A.P.S.(TM) (Ligand Epitope Antigen Presentation System) technology allows the Company to direct an immune response against specific disease epitopes. In the case of CEL-SCI's investigational LEAPS-H1N1 treatment, this involves non-changing regions of H1N1 Pandemic Flu, Avian Flu (H5N1), and the Spanish Flu. This is intended to enable stimulation of the specifically-needed immune responses, while avoiding the administration of regions of H1N1, and other viruses, which may exacerbate the problem of cytokine storm, which CEL-SCI scientists believe may be involved in the death of some H1N1 patients. L.E.A.P.S. technology is a novel T-cell modulation platform technology that enables CEL-SCI to design and synthesize, non-recombinantly, proprietary immunogens. The L.E.A.P.S. technology combines a small peptide that activates the immune system with a small peptide from a disease-related protein, such as the H1N1 hemagglutinin molecule, to make an investigational product that induces defined immune responses. Each L.E.A.P.S. construct is composed of a T cell binding ligand (TCBL) which previously has demonstrated the ability to induce and elicit protective immunity and antigen-specific antibody production in animal models. Thus, extensive animal studies conducted to date indicate that 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. About CEL-SCI Corporation 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 in advanced primary head and neck cancer. CEL-SCI is also developing an immunotherapy to prevent and treat swine and other influenzas using its L.E.A.P.S. technology platform and expects to soon finish the validation of its state-of-the-art facility in Maryland which it expects to utilize to launch aseptic filling for stem cell produced therapies and other biological products. The Company has operations in Vienna, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, please visit http://www.cel-sci.com/. 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, lack of regulatory clearance to proceed with clinical trials, an inability to duplicate the clinical results demonstrated in clinical studies that have been completed or that are initiated in the future, timely development of any potential products that can be shown to be safe and effective, unwillingness of regulatory authorities to engage in further regulatory dialogue, 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/A for the year ended September 30, 2008. 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. DATASOURCE: CEL-SCI Corporation CONTACT: Gavin de Windt of CEL-SCI Corporation, +1-703-506-9460 Web Site: http://www.cel-sci.com/

Copyright