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Biotech / Medical : Agouron Pharmaceuticals (AGPH) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oliver & Co who wrote (3086)	12/3/1997 1:12:00 AM
From: WAH	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6136

<<But Crosson said that could change next year, when three companies -- Abbott Laboratories Inc ABT , Glaxo Wellcome Plc , and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc VRTX -- are expected to introduce new protease inhibitors with fewer side effects. "I think it will get harder for Agouron," said Crosson. "Because resistance is going to grow with patients on combination therapy, more of them will be switching to new drugs." >> As someone who is currently taking Viracept, the above appears to be pretty misguided. First, Viracept is noted for having few side effects and a very forgiving dosing schedule. Crixivan is probably going to be the biggest loser due to the kidney stone side effect. But more egregrious (sorry if i misspelled my big word of the day) is the second paragraph. I believe that recent research suggests that viral load suppression is turning out to be very effective as long as proper dosing is maintained. Therefore there should be no mass resistance and no mass switch to other PI's. I know i would be loathe to switch my PI as long as it is working. Myself & all other HIV+ people i know plan on taking our prescribed pills for the rest of our hopefully fairly long lives. I have also read that a twice a day dosing schedule may be in he works for Viracept making it more appealing. So maybe being a one drug company won't be so bad. P.S. for those of you curious about the status of the lab rat, I opted for the "hit hard, hit early" routine. i was at viral load 6,600 tcell of 426 when i started Viracept, Zerit & Epivir in August '97, shortly after finding out my HIV+ status. I'm now undetectable with 370 tcell (a 'normal variation' according to my doc). This is with the new more sensitive test (down to 25 copies per ml., I believe). Anecdotally, my doctor tells me this is the norm for people on viracept etc.