AIDS drug shows promise

Ritonavir can extend life, researchers say

February 1, 1996
Web posted at: 10:00 a.m. EST

From Correspondent Jeff Levine and wire reports

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A twice-daily dose of the AIDS treatment drug Ritonavir, when taken with other drugs, can reduce the AIDS death rate dramatically, researchers say.

Ritonavir, developed by Abbott Laboratories, is one of a class of drugs called protease inhibitors that block the AIDS virus at a crucial phase in its life cycle.

Test results "are clearly more powerful than anything we've seen," said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. The findings were unveiled this week in Washington before 2,300 scientists at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

Lower death rate

Another protease inhibitor called Crixivan has shown promise in laboratory studies. But Ritonavir is the first of these drugs that has actually lengthened life. Not only do protese inhibitors "stop the virus in ways we haven't been able to do before", they also help restore damaged immune systems, said Dr. Calvin Cohen of Harvard Medical School. (119 AIFF sound or 119K WAV sound)

Doctors studied about 1,000 AIDS patients in the most advanced stages of the disease. Those who were given Ritonavir combined with the drugs AZT and ddC had a 50 percent lower death rate. There also were fewer serious infections and relatively few bad side effects. Last month, Abbott asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve the drug for general use.

Although the encouraging results came from testing the sickest AIDS patients, Cohen believes protease-inhibitor drugs may benefit almost everyone infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Fauci said he's encouraged by the Ritonavir study and others that show drug combinations that may be more effective than treatment with a single drug.

AIDS cases up among young heterosexuals

The apparent success with Ritonavir was the good news. The bad news was that the incidence of AIDS is rising among young heterosexuals, especially minorities, said Dr. James Goedert of the National Cancer Institute. He expects the trend to continue. (145K AIFF sound or 145K WAV sound)

Overall, however, the number of new AIDS cases in the United States is declining slightly, although researchers said the virus is killing 40,000 people each year. About 600,000 Americans are now HIV-positive, said Dr. Robert Biggar of the National Cancer Institute.

Other conference news:

* A study found that AIDS patients whose doctors rarely treat the disease die, on average, one year sooner than patients who go to doctors more familiar with the disease.

* Scientists from the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta reported the first case of AIDS in a chimpanzee. That means chimps can now be used instead of humans when testing new vaccines and treatments. Chimps are the only animal that can be infected with HIV. But until now, it appeared they never developed full-blown AIDS.

* Whey, the watery dairy product produced when milk is made into cheese, might be a new way to keep the AIDS virus from infecting people during sex. A modified version of a protein extracted from whey blocked the AIDS virus from infecting cells in the test tube, researchers said. If further tests go well, the modified protein might be put in a cream or foam that could be used along with condoms.

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