Subject: Wellcome Unit Expands Program for Aids Patients
Date: Published: 9/11/91 (40 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Technology:
    Wellcome Unit Expands
    Program for Aids Patients

    RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N. C. -- Burroughs Wellcome Co. 
 said it is expanding its patient-assistance program to
 provide up to $10 million in free medication for people with
 AIDS and AIDS-related conditions.
    The program, begun in 1987 to soften the cost of the
 company's antiviral drug AZT, now is expanded to include all
 prescription medications made by the Wellcome PLC unit to
 combat AIDS and its related infections.  The drugs include
 Septra, for AIDS-related pneumonia; Zovirax brand acyclovir,
 for herpes; and Daraprim brand pyrimethamine, for
 toxoplasmosis.
    "This program demonstrates the company's commitment to
 providing medicines to people with no means of payment," said
 Philip Tracy, president and chief executive officer of
 Burroughs Wellcome.
    A Wellcome spokeswoman said the program now is more
 "user-friendly," offering vouchers a patient can take
 directly to the pharmacy.  To enroll patients in the
 assistance program, the company said, physicians can call a
 tollfree telephone number.
    Originally priced at $8,000 to $10,000, the cost of AZT
 has been a contentious issue.  Though the annual tab was
 whittled by price cuts and dose reductions to between $2,200
 and $2,800 a year, patient advocates remain bitter over
 Wellcome's AZT monopoly, secured by a "use patent" on the
 drug.  In July, the U. S. government granted a conditional
 license to a challenger, Barr Laboratories Inc. of Pomona,
 N. Y., in its bid to market cut-rate AZT.  

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