Lower Viracept dose works, Agouron (NASDAQ:AGPH) reports
Reuters, Friday, September 25, 1998 at 08:29
LOS ANGELES, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Biotech company Agouron
Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday a higher, twice-daily dosage
of its anti-HIV drug Viracept worked as well as the lower
three-times-daily dosage patients normally take.
Preliminary results of the 48-week trial of the protease
inhibitor were presented at the American Society for
Microbiology conference in San Diego.
The study followed 238 patients taking Viracept as part of
a cocktail of drugs in both the United States and Europe.
It found that 80 percent of patients who took the
twice-daily dosage showed almost undetectable levels of the HIV
virus. Those results were comparable to results for patients
taking the three-times-daily dosage.
Viracept is only approved by U.S. regulators for a
three-times-daily dosage. Agouron is hoping to secure approval
for a twice-daily dosage because it makes it easier for
patients to take their medicine on time, an important factor in
protease inhibitors since taking the medicine late can make the
treatment less effective and cause complications.
A spokeswoman for Agouron said the company hopes to file an
application with regulators by the end of the year to raise the
approved dosage to 1,250 mg twice daily up from a current
regimen of 750 mg three times a day.
If approved, the twice-daily dosage is expected to help
Agouron take market share from Merck and Co Inc's competing
drug Crixivan.
Both Agouron and Merck have been fighting to dominate the
market for protease inhibitors, which have revolutionized the
treatment of HIV treatment, with both companies' drugs far
outselling competing therapies from Abbott Laboratories and
Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc.
Abbott has had problems recently with the production of its
drug Norvir and has been forced to switch patients from
capsules to a liquid form of the drug which tastes unpleasant.
In August, Viracept, which costs about $5,650 annually,
accounted for 33 percent of the market for protease inhibitors,
leapfrogging Merck's Crixivan, which slipped to 32 percent.
About 225,000 patients in the United States take protease
inhibitors.
In the latest study on Viracept about 17 percent of
patients on the three-times a day dosage suffered from diarrhea
compared to 12 percent of those on the regular dosage.
(NASDAQ:AGPH) (NYSE:MRK) (NYSE:ABT) (ZSE:ROCZ.G)
Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service |
