Subject: $100 Million For Tests of Possible AIDS Treatments
Date: Published: 7/1/86 91 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   U. S. Medical Centers to Get $100 Million
   For Tests of Possible AIDS Treatments
    ---
   By Marilyn Chase
   Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

   The National Institutes of Health widened its search for a
drug to treat acquired immune deficiency syndrome by awarding
five-year contracts totaling $100 million to 14 medical
centers across the U. S. 
   The program of contracts, unprecedented in its scale and
flexibility, responds to the increasing concern over the
mysterious terminal disease by granting access to
experimental treatments for about 1,000 patients with AIDS or
a related condition known as ARC. 
   The program is expected to yield more and better data and
to "bring us closer to the answers we seek," according to
Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is heading the program.
So far, no drug has been proven safe and effective against
AIDS. 
   The first drugs to be tested will include alpha
interferon, an immune-system booster currently made by
Schering-Plough Corp. and Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc. ;
azidothymidine, an antiviral drug made by Burroughs Wellcome
Co. ; foscarnet, an antiviral made by Astra of Sweden; HPA-23,
an antiviral produced by Rhone-Poulenc S. A. of France; and
ribavirin, an antiviral made by ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. 
   All have been given to humans before and have shown
initial promise in laboratory tests or preliminary clinical
trials.  Also slated for possible testing is dideoxycytidine,
a sister compound to azidothymidine being developed by the
National Cancer Institute but so far tested only on animals.
   To date, AIDS has struck about 22,000 people in the U. S.,
an estimated 50,000 in Africa and thousands more in Europe
and elsewhere.  Millions more are believed to be infected and
infectious but not yet showing any symptoms.  The disease
ravages the body's immune system and kills by a variety of
infections, cancers and brain disorders.  It hits hardest at
homosexuals and intravenous drug abusers in the U. S., but it
is a heterosexual disease in Africa, and an increasing number
of cases of heterosexual transmission is being found in the
U. S. and elsewhere.
   Establishment of the 14 centers will "provide a new and
expanded opportunity for patients to volunteer for clinical
trials," according to Samuel Broder, director of the NIH's
drug selection committee, and will "generate significant
research data based on consistent treatment protocols and
give investigators at many centers a chance to share ideas
and insights" about the disease.
   Although some AIDS patients welcomed the program, it seems
practically certain to generate controversy.
   The tests will be "placebo-controlled" to ensure
objectivity.  That means they will test a new drug against a
sugar-pill placebo to offset potential doctor and patient
bias caused by the intense desire to cure and be cured.  Nor
will the drugs be handed out on a "compassionate plea" basis,
despite a recent protest by Mathilde Krim, a New York
researcher who has called the use of placebos in AIDS tests
"inhumane."
   To address that controversy and others, Rep. Ted Weiss
(D., N. Y.)  will open hearings today in Washington on the
science and ethics of AIDS drug testing.  Patients and their
supporters say tests have been too slow, small and
restrictive.  In reply, federal health sources cited legal
requirements for competitive bidding among medical centers
involved.
   Rep. Weiss's hearings also may address the Justice
Department's recent opinion that employers in certain
instances may fire employees who have AIDS. 
   Researchers at each of the 14 medical centers will treat
50 to 150 patients in the first phase of the tests.  Centers
receiving contracts are at Harvard University; Johns Hopkins
University; New York University; Stanford University;
University of California campuses in Los Angeles, San Diego
and San Francisco; the University of Miami (Fla.)  ; the
University of Pittsburgh; the University of Rochester (N. Y.)  ;
the University of Southern California; the University of
Washington; the University of Texas/M. D. Anderson Hospital in
Houston; and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in
New York.

(This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the 
hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.)