ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996                 TAG: 9606250075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-6  EDITION: METRO 

IN HEALTH

FDA OKs new AIDS prescription

WASHINGTON- The Food and Drug Administration approved the first in a new class of AIDS medicines Monday, clearing patients to start adding the drug nevirapine to their treatment combinations this summer.

Nevirapine, to be sold under the brand name Viramune, targets the same element of the AIDS virus as many older medicines, inhibiting an enzyme key to HIV's reproduction.

But it is in a new class of drugs specially developed to fight the reverse transcriptase enzyme differently, by blocking the receptor where the enzyme sits to do its job, much as a key fits into a lock.

Adding nevirapine to such older drugs as AZT and ddI modestly boosts their ability to lower the HIV floating in the bloodstream and strengthen the immune system, studies suggest.

Manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim Corp. said Viramune will be on pharmacy shelves by Aug. 1. A price wasn't announced.

- Associated Press

Some ALS patients may vie for new drug

WASHINGTON - Patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, got government permission Monday to vie for free doses of an experimental drug that promises to slow, but not stop, their relentless paralysis.

Scientists disagree over whether Myotrophin actually works and how well, but thousands of patients with the disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, have clamored for it. At a meeting earlier this month, patients tearfully begged the Food and Drug Administration to clear the drug.

Monday, the FDA granted patients special early access to Myotrophin as its maker completes its approval process for the drug to be sold.

Because Myotrophin is in short supply, manufacturer Cephalon Inc. will hold a lottery for free, experimental doses. Cephalon could not say Monday how many patients will get the drug, nor had it set up a system for patients to enroll in the lottery.

For information, call (800)797-0705.

- Associated Press

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