Sheffield Medical Technologies Inc. announced that it hasformed an agreement with CBR Laboratories Inc. (CBRL) for theproduction and purification of full-length recombinant CD4.

Sheffield (NASDAQ:SHEF) will pay $1.19 million to CBRL, asubsidiary of the Center for Blood Research Inc., an affiliate ofHarvard Medical School. Sheffield of Houston intends to use thepurified CD4 in its anti-HIV red blood cell-CD4 complex.

To make this complex, the recombinant CD4 is attached to redblood cells (RBCs) via an electroinsertion technology developedby CBRL (to which Sheffield is the exclusive sublicensee). Thescavenger RBC-CD4 complex apparently is able to act as asponge for HIV and forms aggregates with HIV-infected cells,according to the company. In vitro studies have demonstratedthat the RBC-CD4 complex loaded with HIV does not infectmacrophages during phagocytosis.

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