The antibody is unlikely to promote resistance to itself via generation of CD4-independent virus, and has performed well in phase 2 open-label trials.
[3] Additionally, it offers hope to HIV patients whose infection has become multi-drug resistant.
[4] Furthermore, the antibody has shown long term suppression, which requires the patient to be treated less often, which improves treatment adherence.
[5] Previous experimental infusions of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNABs) have suppressed HIV for about two weeks by targeting proteins on the virus itself, but the rapid mutation rate of HIV induces antibody-resistant strains that render the treatment ineffective.
UB-421 theoretically avoids this possibility by blocking a stable human protein that HIV uses to infect T cells.