
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990                   TAG: 9005100083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AIDS DRUG EFFECTIVE IN STUDIES

The experimental AIDS drug ddI continues to show promise in two new studies being published today, raising the hope that trials now under way with larger numbers of patients may eventually establish it as an effective alternative to AZT for patients with the disease.

The ddI, or dideoxyinosine, appears to be the most promising new AIDS drug to appear since the discovery in 1986 that AZT could prolong the lives of people with the disease. And because AZT cannot be used by all AIDS patients and its effectiveness eventually runs out, an alternative treatment is sorely needed.

In addition to more than 900 patients now enrolled in studies of ddI, another 8,600 are receiving the drug free from its manufacturer, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., because they cannot take AZT or because AZT has failed to help them, according to a company spokeswoman.

The new studies, which involved 71 patients, were done to establish safe doses and not to assess the drug's effectiveness. But, like a preliminary study published last year, it was found that ddI boosted the numbers of a critical type of immune system cell in patients' blood and reduced the amount of AIDS virus present. It also made many patients gain weight or feel better.

The studies also confirmed that ddI can have serious side effects of its own, including potentially fatal inflammation of the pancreas or painful, long-lasting nerve damage. But it does not produce the anemia that often forces patients to stop taking AZT. And researchers hope that ddI's serious side effects may be avoidable by using lower doses of the drug.

Whether ddI can equal or surpass AZT in its ability to fight the AIDS virus and slow the progression of the disease will be answered by two large government-sponsored studies comparing the two treatments, said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Fauci said that, so far, 635 patients are enrolled in the studies, which have a target enrollment of 2,250.

by CNB