Subject: Gilead Sciences Poised to Begin Clinical Tests 
Date: Published: 3/19/92 (67 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Medicine:
    Gilead Sciences
    Poised to Begin
    Clinical Tests
    ----
    By Marilyn Chase
    Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal

    Gilead Sciences Inc., one of the pioneer companies seeking
 to thwart the activity of disease-causing genes, is poised to
 take its first product into the clinic.
    Gilead, based in Foster City, Calif., yesterday filed an
 investigational new drug application with the Food and Drug
 Administration covering a new drug for the treatment of
 AIDS-related blindness.  The FDA's response typically comes
 within 30 days, after which the company may launch human
 tests.
    Gilead's president and chief executive officer, Michael L. 
 Riordan, said the compound GS504 is the first of a suite of
 experimental new drugs that Gilead is developing from
 nucleotides, the building blocks of deoxyribonucleic acid
 (DNA), the raw material of genes.
    GS504 will be tested against cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a
 virus that frequently attacks AIDS patients, causing
 inflammation of the retina and eventual blindness.  While
 animal studies suggest kidney toxicity may be a side effect,
 other drugs have side effects as well.
    Later this year, Gilead plans to file an investigational
 new drug application to test a second experimental drug,
 dubbed GS393, against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),
 which causes AIDS.  In animal studies, GS393 so far appears
 more potent than Wellcome PLC's antiviral drug AZT, Dr. 
 Riordan said.  The compound also inhibits herpes virus, a
 frequent companioninfection of AIDS.  
    Dr. Riordan says these first two AIDS-related drugs may be
 given in convenient oral formulas and also have a long
 halflife, or active stint in the body, perhaps enabling
 doctors to give less frequent doses.  But he emphasizes there
 is no guarantee of human safety or effectiveness.  "No
 nucleotide (drug) has ever been in humans yet," he says.
    The five-year-old company went public in December.  Gilead
 is one of a new wave of biotech companies aiming to use
 genetic building blocks to fight disease in a different way
 than most established biotech firms.  "Old biotech focuses on
 the production of beneficial proteins; we're focused on
 turning off disease-causing proteins," said Dr. Riordan.
    GS504 is earmarked for Gilead's first time in clinical
 tests, under its three-part program to treat diseases from
 viral infections and heart disease to cancer.  That program is
 organized around three kinds of experimental compounds of
 increasing size:  the small molecules for the AIDS virus,
 medium-sized strands for heart disease, and long strands that
 would block a gene that triggers cancerous growth.  Gilead's
 cancer work is being done under a pact with Glaxo Inc. 
    The company has $105 million on hand to fund its ambitious
 research and development program, Dr. Riordan said.  Still,
 given the long lead time and arduous testing required for
 such experimental drugs, Gilead isn't expecting to see
 product revenues for "a few years," he said.

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