
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990                   TAG: 9003232776
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

NEW DRUG FIGHTS RARE DISEASE

A new drug approved today by the Food and Drug Administration will dramatically improve the lives of children born with a rare disease that makes them unable to fight infections, public health officials said.

About 40 children are born worldwide each year with severe combined immunodeficiency disease, or SCID, which also is called "Boy in the Bubble" disease because some children have survived only by living in an enclosed, sterile environment.

Without adequate immune systems, these children are unable to fight infectious diseases like chicken pox or pneumonia. Most die before they are 2 years old.

The only cure for this genetic disorder, which appears to be a lack of the an enzyme, is bone marrow transplant, generally from a brother or sister.

The new product, called Peg-ADA and made by Enzon Inc. of South Plainfield, N.J., will allow children for whom bone marrow transplant is not possible or has failed to survive outside a sterile environment.

Only about 20 percent of the children born with SCID find a compatible donor and only about 30 percent to 40 percent of those have successful transplants, said Donna Chappina, a spokeswoman for Enzon.

by CNB