Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (4675)	7/1/1998 11:42:00 AM
From: Steve Fancy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6136

Drug-Resistant AIDS Strains Worry Researchers at Parley By MICHAEL WALDHOLZ Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL GENEVA -- Researchers presented disturbing reports showing that some people have contracted new strains of the AIDS virus that are resistant to some of the powerful drug-combination therapies that have revolutionized treatment of the disease over the past two years. In several presentations made Tuesday at the 12th World AIDS Conference (http://www.aids98.ch/) here, medical investigators said there is evidence that drug-resistant versions of HIV can be found in people recently infected by the virus. That means they contracted a version of the virus already resistant to certain AIDS medicines. The first reports of drug-resistant strains of HIV caused concern at the gigantic AIDS research meeting, which has attracted more than 13,000 attendees. But it was tempered by surprising reports from other scientists, suggesting that some patients who have fared well for a long time on the combination drug therapy may someday be able to terminate the treatment. The hint that combination therapy may allow patients to later hold the virus in check without medication is especially important, amid growing reports that long-term use of the drugs can cause troubling and annoying side effects, such as excessive fat accumulations. The evidence that a multidrug-resistant strain is being spread is a wake-up call to people who think that if they get infected now, they will be able to easily treat their infection with the powerful combination drug therapies, said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. government's National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci said the reports mean that getting infected now can be just like getting infected in 1983, because a multidrug-resistant virus may not respond to any of the numerous drugs being used these days by tens of thousands of people to combat the virus. Resistance to AZT Cited In research presented Tuesday, Sabine Yerly of the University Hospital in Geneva said she and her colleagues studying 57 newly infected people found that six of them were resistant to the new protease-inhibitor drugs that play a crucial role in the combination-drug therapies. Dr. Yerly said that in five newly infected people in the study, researchers found resistance to AZT, the Glaxo Wellcome PLC drug also commonly used in the drug "cocktail" treatments. Especially worrisome, the Geneva researchers found that one individual was infected by a virus resistant to three drugs at once, though the virus didn't appear resistant to the protease class of medicines. In a separate report summarizing drug-resistance research presented last week in Italy, John Mellors of the University of Pittsburgh said about 2% of 400 people tested in one study were resistant to several drugs. Researchers from the University of San Francisco at California are also expected to present evidence Wednesday of an individual resistant to six of the 11 approved anti-HIV medicines commonly used in the combination therapy. Dr. Mellors and several other scientists said it may now be essential that doctors treating newly infected people use a test that has just been developed that can identify whether a person carries one of the drug-resistant HIV strains. One of the tests, expected to cost $400 to $800, will be available later this month from a clinical lab company called Laboratory Corp. of America. The test is going to be a very important part of treating HIV, Dr. Mellors said, noting that using this and similar tests will be the only way doctors can accurately assess which medications are most likely to be effective against HIV prior to beginning therapy. Issue of Weaning Patients Separately, some leading AIDS scientists said they are moving forward with various strategies to determine whether patients can be weaned from the drugs. The thought of keeping people on therapy for the rest of their lives is problematic because of mounting evidence of side effects, Dr. Fauci said. In a report to the conference, David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond Research Center in New York, said he and his colleagues are continuing their efforts to cure patients of the virus using the combination drug therapy. In many patients, the therapy can drive down virus levels to the point where they cannot be identified by even the most sensitive tests. But last year scientists reported that even in people treated aggressively, a tiny reservoir of the virus remains unreachable by the drugs. That means that if they terminate their treatment the virus may return in force. Dr. Ho said new experiments show that even in people whose virus is undetectable by standard tests there seems to be some tiny bit of viral reproduction that continues to infect cells of the immune system unreachable by the drugs. He said researchers expect to try injecting patients with several agents to drive the virus out of these reservoirs. Meanwhile, he and others said there is anecdotal evidence from some patients who have quit combination therapy that while there still is virus in their bloodstream, it may be held in check by their immune system. Scientists said this preliminary evidence suggests that HIV-infected people who have successfully driven the virus down with combination treatment may some day be able to live many years with small amounts of virus in their bodies. Dr. Fauci said the government is beginning to collect data from patients who have terminated therapy on their own to determine if it is indeed possible to keep the virus from re-emerging. In New York Stock Exchange composite trading Tuesday, Glaxo's American depositary receipts fell $1.6875 to $59.8125.

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (4675)	7/1/1998 11:45:00 AM
From: Steve Fancy	Respond to of 6136

Glaxo Wellcome Says Aprenavir Drug Might Help Immune System Dow Jones Newswires LONDON -- U.K. pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Wellcome PLC (GLX) said Tuesday that its new protease inhibitor amprenavir may be effective in helping the recovery of immune systems in HIV patients. Glaxo is presenting data to the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva, which suggests that amprenavir, when used in combination with its new reverse transcriptase inhibitor abacavir, suppresses viral load and may support "immune reconstitution." Other data also suggests that amprenavir may have a unique resistance profile. The question of whether the immune system can be restored following its deterioration is key to HIV patients, as the virus progressively damages the body's immune system. A Swiss study involving the use of an amprenavir/abacavir combination found that after 48 weeks of treatment, viral load was undetectable in eight of the nine patients tested. By comparing the differences in the ratio of CD4 cells to CD8 cells in the lymph nodes at the beginning of the trial with the equivalent ratio after 48 weeks, the data suggested the abnormal activation of the immune system in the lymph nodes induced by HIV "may have returned to nearly normal levels." Pierre-Alexandre Bart, who conducted the study, said the data raises the possibility that long-term viral suppression allows the immune system to begin repairing the damage caused by HIV infection. "While these are preliminary data and further studies are needed, the positive response seen by the abacavir/amprenavir combination is an encouraging indication that this might be possible," he said. At 0918 GMT, Glaxo shares were down 18 pence at 1,824 pence, a 1.0% fall, but the blue-chip FTSE-100 index, in which Glaxo has a heavy weighting, was off 0.6%, or 32.9 points, at 5851.6 points. -By Michael Reid; 44-171-832-8163; -Michael.Reid@cor.dowjones.com