Narhex ex-CEO licenses HIV treatment for Mexico

Retired Narhex Life Sciences (ASX:NLS) founder and CEO, John Majewski, plans to form a new company to bring Narhex's HIV treatment candidate to Mexico.

Majewski has negotiated an exclusive technology license to the treatment for the Mexico and the US regions from his former company.

The prospective product, a small molecule boosted protease inhibitor combination treatment, has been taken through phase I and IIa trials by Narhex.

Majewski plans to register the treatment in Mexico through a new corporate entity, Four Guardians Life Sciences, as well as a Mexican CRO partner.

Four Guardians will complete phase IIb and III trials in Mexico with its CRO partner, as part of a registration with the Mexican Health Department.

In consultation with the department, the company has submitted a plan to combine both trials into one.

To fund the application and initial commercialisation, the company plans to raise US$8 million ($7.7 million) in seed capital from investor groups.

The objective is to introduce a new generation alternative into a market that has been stuck with older-generation antiviral treatments – which are no longer the treatment of choice in the most developed regions – due to the prohibitive costs of the more cutting-edge protease inhibitors.

An estimated 200,000 Mexicans have been diagnosed with HIV.

Four Guardians will also aim the treatment at the cross-border Latin American population seeking more cost effective protease inhibitor treatments.

Narhex (ASX:NLS) shares were trading unchanged at $0.008 as of 2:30pm on Monday.