Company to Assist Study of Women’s Prophylactic : Biomedicine: UltraFem of Irvine says it will help fund university research to develop a device for protecting women against sexually transmitted diseases.

A small biomedical company here said Monday that it is working with researchers at Johns Hopkins University to develop a new method for protecting women against sexually transmitted diseases.

UltraFem Inc. said it will support research at the Baltimore university aimed at developing human monoclonal antibodies--a type of natural protective agent--that could be released in a woman’s body to block infectious diseases such as gonorrhea and AIDS. The company has developed a disposable, cuplike device that covers the cervix, and Hopkins researchers believe that the device could be used to deliver the disease-fighting antibodies.

AIDS is now a major cause of death among young women in the United States, and women will, on average, contract at least one sexually transmitted disease or infection in their lifetimes.

Every year, nearly 5% of Americans contract a sexually transmitted disease, and more than 250 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases are reported worldwide.

“We believe this new prophylactic method will help slow these major epidemics and significantly improve the reproductive health of women,” said Richard A. Cone, a Hopkins biophysicist who is a researcher on the project.

UltraFem will invest between $2 million and $3 million over a three- to five-year period on the research. Even if the research is successful, the company does not expect to have a marketable product until sometime in the late 1990s.

In the meantime, UltraFem, founded in March, 1990, plans to seek federal approval to market another product, the UltraFem Vaginal System, as a sanitary protection device. The company says the device could be used to collect menstrual discharge during a four- to six-hour period and to deliver medication to treat vaginal infections, such as yeast infection. UltraFem hopes to bring that product to market by 1993.

University researchers have demonstrated in animal tests that antibodies can be applied directly to the vagina to block the entry of sexually transmitted diseases. Researchers eventually plan to seek approval to test the devices on humans.

Bruce F. Rose, president and chief executive of UltraFem, said a principal benefit of the research, if successful, would be to give women more control in the prevention of sexually transmitted disease. Currently, the only product available on the market to prevent sexual transmission of diseases is the condom.

UltraFem does not have any products on the market at this time. It anticipates that the market for the UltraFem Vaginal System will be in the “multimillion-dollar range.”

The Irvine firm and the university would share any patents resulting from the research.