Melbourne, Australia; 19 July 2011 – Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX:SPL, OTCQX:SPHRY) today commented on results of a study which showed that men were three times more likely to contract HIV from their female partners if the women also had bacterial vaginosis (BV) in the three months before the men became infected.

The findings¹ were reported at the International HIV/AIDS Conference in Rome yesterday by researchers led by Professor Craig Cohen from the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco.

This study is the first to demonstrate an association between BV in HIV infected female partners and their risk of HIV transmission to their male partners.

Several previous studies have demonstrated an increased risk of HIV acquisition in females with BV, including one study that indicated more than 30% of HIV infections in women could be prevented if BV was successfully treated.

Starpharma CEO Jackie Fairley said:  “This very interesting finding is relevant to Starpharma’s bacterial vaginosis program for VivaGel^®, both for acute treatment and also for the important prevention of recurrence application.  No doubt this finding will further increase interest in bacterial vaginosis, both for consumers and in a public health sense.”

“Professor Craig Cohen has previously led a clinical study of Starpharma’s VivaGel^®, and we congratulate him and his team on this important finding.”

VivaGel^® was recently shown in a phase 2 study to successfully treat BV and planning for phase 3 studies is underway.  An additional phase 2 study is anticipated to commence in Q3 2011 to investigate VivaGel^® for prevention of recurrence of BV.

^{1. “}Association of bacterial vaginosis with female-to-male HIV-1 transmission among HIV-1 discordant couples in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

C.R. Cohen, J.R. Lingappa, J.M. Baeten, M.O. Ngayo, C.A. Spiegel, T. Hong, D. Donnell, C. Celum, S. Kapiga, S. Delany, E.A. Bukusi, Partners in Prevention HSV/HIV Transmission Study Team.

Presented by Craig R Cohen at the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention.

Download ASX Announcement:  Partners of Bacterial Vaginosis sufferers at increased risk of HIV ( pdf file, 142kb)