Subject: Lyphomed Sues Professional Compounding Over AIDS Drug Sale
Date: Published: 6/1/89 (34 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Technology Brief -- Lyphomed Inc.:  
    Professional Compounding
    Sued Over AIDS Drug Sale

    Lyphomed Inc. said it filed a suit in federal court in
 Houston against Professional Compounding Centers of America
 Inc. and three of its officers for unauthorized sale of a
 drug used in AIDS patients.
    In the suit, Lyphomed, a Rosemont, Ill., pharmaceutical
 concern, charged that Professional Compounding violated state
 and federal law by selling raw pentamidine in bulk to
 pharmacists who compounded it and dispensed it to acquired
 immune deficiency syndrome patients.  Lyphomed said it's the
 only company approved by the Food and Drug Administration to
 market the drug within the U. S. 
    The company also said U. S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes
 issued a preliminary injunction last week that restrains
 Professional Compounding from selling pentamidine, and from
 contacting doctors, hospitals, or pharmacists to solicit
 orders for the purchase of pentamidine.
    Pentamidine is a drug used to treat a life-threatening
 form of pneumonia that is the major cause of death among AIDS
 patients.
    Closely held Professional Compounding had no comment on
 the suit.

[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.]