Subject: Boehringer Curtails Tests Of AIDS Drug Nevirapine
Date: Published: 11/29/91 (33 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Technology:
    Boehringer Curtails Tests
    Of AIDS Drug Nevirapine

    RIDGEFIELD, Conn.  -- Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
 Inc., as expected, announced that it will curtail tests of
 its AIDS drug nevirapine.
    The U. S. affiliate of Boehringer Ingelheim International
 G. m.b.H. said it found that preliminary data from 10 patients
 indicates that a drug-resistant virus emerged after as little
 as four weeks of treatment with the antiviral drug.  Despite
 dropping the drug as a single-agent treatment for acquired
 immune deficiency syndrome, the company said it will continue
 to test nevirapine in a combination regimen with Wellcome
 PLC's AZT.  
    The action follows a similar move by Merck & Co., which
 this week said it was dropping its AIDS drug L 661 as a
 single agent following problems with drug-resistant virus.
    Separately, the Janssen Pharmaceutica unit of Johnson &
 Johnson issued a statement Wednesday that it is continuing to
 pursue studies of its TIBO drug, while monitoring it for
 possible viral resistance.  The company stressed that its TIBO
 compound is different from the related Merck and Boehringer
 drugs, and that "resistance against one of them cannot
 automatically be extrapolated" to others.

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