Subject: Bristol-Myers Unit Gets FDA Approval To Market AIDS Test
Date: Published: 2/21/86 39 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Bristol-Myers Unit
   Gets FDA Approval
   To Market AIDS Test

   SEATTLE -- Genetic Systems Corp. said it received Food and
Drug Administration approval to market its blood screening
test for AIDS antibodies.  Genetic Systems, which last week
became a unit of New York-based Bristol-Myers Co., said it
will start shipping tests over the next week.
   About half a dozen rival tests for acquired immune
deficiency syndrome are already on the market, and they and
the Genetic Systems product have become embroiled in a bitter
trans-Atlantic research dispute.
   Genetic Systems based its test on a virus called LAV,
discovered by the Pasteur Institute, a nonprofit Paris
research center.  A Genetic Systems spokesman said the company
will pay the institute royalties from sales of its test.
Meanwhile, several other companies sell AIDS-screening
products based on the HTLV-III virus, discovered by U. S. 
government researchers.
   A positive reaction to the tests means that the blood
contains antibodies from the virus that appear to cause AIDS. 
Such tests are used by hospitals and blood centers for
various reasons, including screening potential blood donors.
   As previously reported, last December the Pasteur
Institute sued the U. S., charging that it misappropriated the
institute's research in the work that led to the HTLV-III
discovery.  The institute asked the U. S. Claims Court to award
it all royalties from test-kits based on the HTLV-III virus.

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