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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 21, 1995                   TAG: 9511210083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

FDA CERTIFIES NEW AIDS TREATMENT

The Food and Drug Administration approved the first new initial AIDS treatment in nearly a decade Monday, authorizing the drug 3TC to be used with AZT.

When the two drugs are paired, 3TC appears to boost immune systems and reduce the amount of the HIV virus in the blood for at least six months, says Glaxo Wellcome Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., which makes both drugs.

The combination therapy appears to work best in patients who have never tried AZT alone, prompting an FDA advisory panel to recommend earlier this month that it be offered as an initial therapy. Monday's action makes the 3TC combination patients' first new choice for initial treatment since AZT hit the market in 1987. All other AIDS drugs sold to date are supposed to be used after AZT fails.

Glaxo's wholesale price for the combined drug therapy will be $12.67 to $13.96 per daily dose. This would total $4,600 to $5,100 a year, said Glaxo. Pharmacies and patients can expect to pay more.

Sold under the trade name Epivir and also known as lamivudine, 3TC should be available in pharmacies next week, Glaxo said in a statement. It is the fifth member of a family of AIDS drugs that fight the disease by incapacitating a protein important in the virus' reproduction.

by CNB