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Biotech / Medical : VPHM - Viropharma Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hoffy who wrote (156)	7/14/1999 10:57:00 PM
From: Dick W	Respond to of 2557

Late News Release.... Home - Yahoo! - My Yahoo! - News Alerts - Help Home \| Top Stories \| Business \| Tech \| Politics \| World \| Local \| Entertainment \| Sports \| Science \| Health Yahoo! News Health Headlines Research thousands of health terms, drugs, and diseases Wednesday July 14 5:45 PM ET Experimental drug shortens cold duration NEW YORK, Jul 14 (Reuters Health) -- An experimental drug that is currently under development may one day be used to help treat the common cold. In a clinical trial of the drug, called pleconaril, colds cleared up in a median of 11 days, versus 14 days for patients treated with (an inactive) placebo, announced the manufacturer, ViroPharma Inc (Nasdaq:VPHM - news), at a press conference in New York on Tuesday. The 1,245 trial participants whose severe colds were treated with pleconaril ''experienced a greater than 3-day reduction in the median time to complete elimination of disease symptoms,'' reported the investigators. Pleconaril blocks the function of a group of viruses called picornaviruses, which are responsible for a majority of common colds, according to a statement from ViroPharma, of Exton, Pennsylvania. Dr. B. Thomas Bock, a Harleysville, Pennsylvania-based osteopath who spoke at the conference said he was ''very excited'' about the prospect of offering patients a drug that shortens the course of the common cold, and thus keeps cold complications at bay. ''To be able to offer something other than antibiotics for cold complications, and to be able to lower the number of complications by reducing the course of the illnessis going to be very important,'' he said in an interview with Reuters Health. Antibiotics are useless in treating viruses, which cause the common cold, but are often prescribed anyway. Antibiotics may also be prescribed to treat bacterial infections that may occur as a complication in some cold-sufferers. ''We are killing ourselves with the overuse of antibiotics, and the promotion of resistant strains of bacteria is going to catch up to us,'' Bock said. More advanced clinical trials of the drug are expected to be accomplished in 2000, according to Bock. ''And hopefully, in 2001, we'll see the drug,'' he said.