Immune Response Biopharma and Rheumatoid Arthritis

I have a sister and a best friend who suffer from Rheumatoid arthritis. It is the reason I invested in the company to begin with. I wonder if David Buswell and Immune Response Biopharma "found" that research abandoned somewhere also and now say it is theirs.

"The Immune Response Corporation (Nasdaq: IMNR) announced today that it has received United States Patent Number 6,207,645 expanding coverage relating to its immune-based therapy for rheumatoid arthritis, RAVAX(TM). The recently issued patent has specific claims covering immunization utilizing DNA vaccines that are designed to synthesize the T cell receptor (TCR) Vbeta specific peptides in situ, in contrast to immunizing directly with the TCR peptides themselves. The patent also includes specific claims for DNA vaccines encoding key "superantigen" protein sequences from the Vbeta 3, Vbeta 14 and Vbeta 17 regions of the TCR present on the surface of these pathogenic T cells thought to be associated with rheumatoid arthritis. The Company believes that vaccination with RAVAX may inhibit the disease-associated T cells that cause rheumatoid arthritis, and prevent further damage in patients suffering from the disease. "This recent issuance is a key patent in that it extends previous coverage related to the delivery and composition of RAVAX to now include DNA vaccines in addition to peptide vaccines," said Richard Bartholomew, Ph.D., Executive Director of Research Operations for The Immune Response Corporation. "DNA vaccination is proving to be an effective method of inducing immunity against a number of human diseases. The issuance of this patent to include DNA vaccination for our peptide vaccine program serves to further strengthen our intellectual property position in the field of T cell receptor vaccine research." The Company previously announced that it was issued U.S. patent number 6,090,387 for vaccinating with T cell receptor peptides on August 9, 2000. Several autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and multiple sclerosis, are thought to result in part from the proliferation of "autoreactive pathogenic T cells," immune cells that incorrectly identify the body's own cells as foreign and destroy them. The Immune Response Corporation has completed two Phase II clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis using their proprietary immune-based therapy based on TCR peptide vaccines. In a phase IIb trial of 340 rheumatoid arthritis patients, RAVAX demonstrated safety and tolerability, and suggested a statistically significant treatment effect at one time point after the third injection using criteria established by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR 20). The ACR 20 criteria require an improvement in tender and swollen joint counts of at least 20% from baseline, along with improvement in three of five other disease-related criteria. To date, no clinical studies have been initiated utilizing the DNA vaccination approach."

Immune Response BioPharma and investors

Immune Response BioPharma's David Buswell made some interesting comments recently in regards to House Resolution 1179 (H. Res 1179)  saying that it was wasted taxpayer dollars. He seems to take the moral high ground in the following statements.

“These are really wicked bad people and want to waste your taxpayer dollars on obsolete and junk science. Everyone knows the way to defeat a virus is through the weakened vaccine. They are terrified of my efforts to get REMUNE approved and have gone so far as to trick me on to a conference call and both of them yelled at me for over two hours. These people are crazy and just want to go on needless conferences wasting your taxpayer dollars and junk science and toxic solutions. I pray that God takes action against these evil people”

“They have done their best to discredit my efforts and are trying their best to derail patients from getting the REMUNE vaccine. REMUNE can solve the majority of the HIV/AIDS issues. And I am not afraid of these people they are cowards who do not want a real solution to the pandemic. They just want to continue their lifestyles of wasting taxpayer dollars, and big pharma too has no reason to want REMUNE approved they lose billions of dollars. I restarted Immune Response to save lives I receive no salary. The IP and trademarks were abandoned the company was dissolved and I restarted this company because I believe the science is sound and I won’t be pushed around by wall St.. or these evil people. I am not afraid of cowards”

I would suggest that the best way to advance the research conducted by Immune Response Corportation and Orchestra Therapeutics (OCHT) is to honor the shareholders of OCHT which still trades and whose investors still have rights. The people in charge of managing IMNR and OCHT might have been dishonest, but their investors were hard working people who invested in what they thought was an honestly operated company. Immune Response BioPharma should recognize the shareholders in OCHT by giving them stock in their new company or else paying them compensation for their investments which created the research David Buswell is now trying to bring to market. If you are going to take research from a company that had a reputation for trying to prevent negative test results from being printed not to mention the management disaster that was Immune Response/Orchestra then you better start out on the right foot and do it in a fair and honest manner from day one.

Latest news release from Immune Response BioPharma

Despite what the Immune Response BioPharma says about the Immune Response/Orchestra Thera research the last releases from the company certainly didn't sound good.

 "CARLSBAD, Calif., July 17, Orchestra
Therapeutics, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: OCHT) announced today the
discontinuation of its HIV Vaccine Development Program. Analysis of data
from 70 patients who completed a 52 weeks clinical trial in Europe and
Canada did not show a clear advantage of Orchestra Therapeutics' second
generation HIV vaccine, IR103, over its original whole-killed HIV vaccine,
REMUNE(R). Furthermore, although interim analysis of patients in this trial
at 36 weeks suggested a trend toward stabilization of CD4+ counts in HAART
naive patients vaccinated with REMUNE(R) or IR103, this trend was not
observed at week 52."   

News Release from Immune Response BioPharma

The latest news release from Immune Response BioPharma includes the following statement, "I believe we are close to receiving funding and support from a prominent businessman and we will move forward building a dynamic pharmaceutical company to save lives. Those who wait to partner with IRBP and wait to collaborate including big pharma will lose out” Mr. Buswell COO.

Wouldn't it be interesting if the prominent businessman and financing were to come from Kevin Kimberlin and the good folks at Spencer Trask. The same folks who started Immune Response Corporation later Orchestra Therapeutics and then manipulated the stock into the ground, purchased all the research property rights and then abandoned them so that a new company called Immune Response BioPharma could reform using the same research and technology leaving all the old investors behind.

David Buswell

The following statements were released July 23, 2011 by David Buswell COO of Immune Response BioPharma.

"We are proud of the work we have done in such a short period of time. There remains much outstanding work to do. IRBP has a great pipeline and we have multiple goals on shot with our NeuroVax MS Vaccine the technology, with applications of the drug in RA with our drug RAVAX. We believe REMUNE holds the safest and most effective treatment option for HIV/AIDS the HAART drugs are just plain toxic and poisonous, I am committed to saving lives and getting patients the vaccine” Mr. Buswell COO.

“REMUNE is a winner hands down and see the vaccine as the gold standard of treatment, eventually 90% market share , as soon as we have clarity on CGMP’s manufacturing we will press forward on an NDA for REMUNE. I believe we are close to receiving funding and support from a prominent businessman and we will move forward building a dynamic pharmaceutical company to save lives. Those who wait to partner with IRBP and wait to collaborate including big pharma will lose out” Mr. Buswell COO."

It is interesting that he was able to take research from Immune Reponse Corporation aka Orchestra

Therapeutics and now offers the "gold standard" as they put it. Immune/Orchestra continually returned failed test results using the same research and science to the point that Pfizer gave up and abandoned them. The investors lost all their money, the employees all left, the compnay was unable to obtain any financing or grants and finally it was forced into bankruptcy. Now along comes Mr. Buswell and he declares the research a "gold mine." If it was "gold" why did it not attract investors before? Why were the test results from clinical trials always failures? Why did reputable researchers and scientists accuse the company of trying to manipultate and hide poor test result findings? Why could the company not obtain any grant funding? Why did Wall Street and its investors abandon the company?

Why did Kevin Kimberlin and Spencer Trask continue to give the company money in exchange for the intellectual property rights to the research right up to the moment the company filed bankruptcy? How did David Buswell and Immune Response BioPharma obtain the research files, papers, digital data, clinical results, and patient records?

We would all like to see patients cured, but we would also like to see the business behind it done in a proper, legal, and morally acceptable manner. It should not be done through manipulation in order that the original investors are cheated and abandoned and all the profits go to the insiders who were pulling the strings on the demise of Immune Response Corporation and Orchestra Therapeutics.

Kevin Kimberlin, Spencer Trask, and David Buswell, Immune Response

I have writen to Immune Response Biopharma and Spencer Trask several times asking if Spencer Trask or Kevin Kimberlin were involved in the financial support or creation of the Immune Response Biopharma company which is now laying claims to the research financed by the investors of Immune Response Corportation and Orchestra Therapeutics, Inc. The only response I have received back is threatening letters from David Buswell. They refuse to say if Kevin Kimberlin and Spencer Trask is involved in Immune Response BioPharma or not. I wonder what to make of that.

Spencer Trask

I sent E-mails to both Immune Response BioPharma and Spencer Trask asking if Spencer Trask or Kevin Kimberlin were involved in the financing or managerment of Immune Response BioPharma. Hopefully I will receive a simple honest response.

Dear Sir or Madam:

It is my understanding that your company is claiming to now own the rights to the research conducted over the past twenty plus years by the Immune Response and Orchestra Therapeutic Corporations. Kevin Kimberlin and Spencer Trask were owners in these companies and purchased much of the intellectual property rights. Obviously, for those rights to have been abandoned legally there could be no involvement in Immune Response BioPharma by either Mr. Kimberlin or Spencer Trask as that would simply mean that they helped finance and start a new company under a new name and simply transferred the research rights in order to abandon the previous companies investors and make more profit for themselves.

I have a simple question. Is either Kevin Kimberlin or Spencer Trask involved in the financing or operation of Immune Response BioPharma?

Sincerely,
Joel Reese