Subject: Bristol-Myers's Videx Is Cleared For Wider Use 
Date: Published: 9/29/92 (52 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Health:
    Bristol-Myers's
    Videx Is Cleared
    For Wider Use
    ----
    By Elyse Tanouye
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    NEW YORK -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said the Food and Drug
 Administration has approved expanded use of Videx, the company's
 anti-viral drug to treat HIV infection.
    Videx, or didanosine (commonly called DDI), was first approved
 last October only for patients who couldn't tolerate AZT, made by
 Burroughs Wellcome Co., a unit of Wellcome PLC in London.  The new
 FDA approval allows anyone to switch to Videx after trying AZT.  The
 two drugs are the only ones approved by the FDA to slow the
 progression of HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, which leads to
 AIDS.  
    The latest approval was based on a study published last month in
 the New England Journal of Medicine that suggested switching to DDI
 from AZT slows the onset of full-blown AIDS, or acquired immune
 deficiency syndrome.  The study suggested Videx is superior to AZT in
 reducing secondary infections in patients with AIDS-related complex,
 or ARC, a precursor condition.  Moreover, patients on AZT had higher
 rates of severe anemia and leukopenia, the depletion of certain red
 and white blood cells, than those on DDI, according to the National
 Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which supported the
 study.
    In patients with full-blown AIDS, DDI appeared equal to AZT in
 effectiveness.  The study, led by James Kahn of San Francisco General
 Hospital, found no difference in death rates between the two drugs.
    Samuel Isaly, a pharmaceutical analyst and partner in Mehta &
 Isaly, a research firm, said the approval doesn't change Videx's
 status as a second-choice drug.  "What would really represent an
 advance is if it were designated as first-choice therapy," he said,
 adding that such an approval isn't expected.
    Mr. Isaly said he estimates Videx sales will be $100 million in
 1993, while AZT will top $400 million.
    A Burroughs Wellcome spokeswoman declined to comment on the
 effect of DDI's expanded use on AZT sales.  "AZT is a well
 established drug indicated for a broad spectrum of HIV disease and
 we expect it will continue to be used in that fashion."  She also
 pointed out that the trend in HIV treatment is toward combination
 therapy, using two or more drugs.

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