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

To: Henry Niman who wrote (4583)	6/29/1998 7:23:00 AM
From: ALL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6136

News Stories This AM Agouron Says Its HIV Drug Viracept May Work With Reduced Dosage Geneva, June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc., which became one of the world's few profitable biotechnology companies by introducing the AIDS drug Viracept last year, said the medicine might work with a daily dose of two pills instead of three. Reducing the dosage by even one pill could help more people stick with the complicated regimens that stave off AIDS by combining several of the latest anti-HIV drugs. Some people with HIV have take 20 pills a day and follow complex rules about what kinds of food they can eat and when they can eat and take pills. Agouron's Viracept, introduced in March 1997, had $308 million in sales in its first year on the market, taking share from Merck & Co., one of the world's largest drugmakers. Merck's drug, Crixivan, is taken on an empty stomach. Agouron's Viracept can be taken with food, making it easier for patients to follow their dosage regimens. Adherence with combination therapy is clearly a crucial issue which dramatically affects both clinical outcome and the patient's quality of life,'' said Steve Schnittman, director of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s infectious disease clinical research, in a statement. Bristol-Myers said it is studying whether its AIDS drug, Videx can be taken just once a day instead of twice. And Roche Holding AG presented research showing its protease inhibitor, Fortavase, is just as effective when taken twice a day as the three-times-a-day regimen. In Agouron's European study, patients were randomly selected to get either twice daily doses of Viracept or take the pill three times a day. All patients also continued taking Bristol- Myers Squibb Co.'s Zerit and Glaxo Wellcome Plc's 3TC. Looking at results for 143 patients after 48 weeks, more than 80 percent of the patients in both groups had fewer than 400 copies of the HIV virus per milliliter of blood. This measure has been considered the level for considering the virus undetectable, although new more sensitive tests can measure even smaller concentrations of the virus. The results were presented at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva. 04:23:16 06/29/1998 Agouron Licenses Shionogi AIDS Drug for $40 Mln Plus Royalties Geneva, June 28 (Bloomberg) - Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc., maker of the AIDS drug, Viracept, said it will pay Japan's Shionogi & Co. as much as $40 million in licensing fees for a drug that may work on strains of HIV that can resist other medicines. Shionogi will retain rights to the drug, which is still in testing, in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Agouron said it will have the rights in North America, Europe and other countries. Shionogi will get royalties from Agouron's sales of the drug. Results of early testing of the Shionogi drug were scheduled for presentation this week at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva. Agouron became one of the few profitable biotechnology companies by challenging giant drugmakers such as Merck & Co. for sales in a new class of AIDS drugs, protease inhibitors. Agouron's Viracept had $308 million in sales in its first year on the market. The drug was approved in March 1997. Adding Shionogi's drug will give Agouron a chance to expand its sales and increase its share of the market. The Shionogi drug works differently from Viracept, which interferes with protease, an enzyme needed to chop up HIV so it can spread. The Shionogi drugs targets another key enzyme, going after the same target as do Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc.'s similar drug Rescriptor and DuPont Co.'s Sustiva. Agouron's strategy is similar to that of the world's biggest seller of AIDS drugs, Glaxo Wellcome Plc. U.K.-based Glaxo, also one of the biggest drugmakers, is working to develop a protease inhibitor, expanding on its older drugs, AZT and 3TC, which target a different enzyme, reverse transcriptase. 03:06:08 06/29/1998

To: Henry Niman who wrote (4583)	6/29/1998 12:27:00 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6136

Don't really know what to say, Henry. You dropped into the thread at a time where resistance patterns had been discussed for ages, starting with the potential marketing advantages that 30 versus 82/84 might convey to Viracept. You were arguing with some guy named John, and it was humorous...... the concepts that you were addressing certainly weren't new.... even in this thread. Both you and John were equally short-sighted. PIs inhibit a single enzyme, and those available to date focus on a given portion of the active site. We already know that NNRTIs and NRTIs express strong synergy. We already know that a given NNRTI can complement deficiencies characteristic of PIs. You say "the key questions focus on duration and resistance". True, but the focus switched, some time ago, to circumventing the resistance, to finding drugs that are complementary such that viral replication is minimized or eliminated. PIs are a major part of that scheme. Most scientists and sophisticated investors have taken your point as a given for quite some time. They've integrated it into one of several strategies, moving forward. >> and the emerging viruses will be resistant to all three drugs << A very non-scientific statement..... what does "resistant" mean? Are there gradations? Do the 34% of patients who were treatment naive get Kaposi's and OI after they rebound? Have they gained nothing apart from a brief period of life with reduced expression of virus?