ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Women will soon be able to buy a nonprescription medicine for yeast infections that takes just three days to work instead of seven.
Femstat 3 was switched from prescription-only to an over-the-counter medicine by the Food and Drug Administration last week. Every other OTC medicine for vaginal yeast infections requires seven days of treatment.
Manufactured by Switzerland's Roche Holding Ltd., the drug will be sold in the United States by Procter & Gamble. The company said Wednesday that Femstat would be on store shelves by spring.
Femstat contains the antifungal agent butoconazole nitrate, available by prescription since 1986. Studies of 600 women showed Femstat worked as well as the leading seven-day brand, miconazole nitrate or Monistat 7, Procter & Gamble said.
But some women with particularly persistent yeast infections or other complicating diseases may still need the seven-day drug, said FDA spokeswoman Ivy Kupec.
Femstat is a thick cream that will be sold in prefilled disposable applicators. Women should apply one applicator each day for three consecutive days, preferably just before bed.
The FDA cautions that women should take a nonprescription remedy only if a doctor previously diagnosed a yeast infection and they are experiencing the same symptoms again.
Women should contact a doctor immediately if they experience abdominal pain, fever or have a foul-smelling discharge, or if the infection lasts more than three days or returns within two months. Femstat also can damage condoms or diaphragms, making them fail, P&G warned.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB