Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993 TAG: 9312010124
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Donna Shalala, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, billed creation of the 15-member panel as a major administration initiative, saying it will complement the increase in government spending on AIDS research by 21 percent this year, to $1.3 billion.
The task force will foster cooperation among large and small drug companies "to refocus and re-energize our best minds for a concerted attack on this killer," Shalala said at a news briefing.
Members have not been selected, although Dr. Philip R. Lee, head of the U.S. Public Health Service and assistant secretary of HHS for health, has been named chairman.
The public is being asked to submit nominations so Shalala may make the selections in about 30 days.
Dr. David A. Kessler, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said he hoped the panel would remedy a situation in which "not a single new drug application" for fighting AIDS is awaiting FDA approval. Some drugs are under study, he said.
FDA officials said that since March 1987, the agency has approved 14 applications for products to treat serious HIV and AIDS-related infections, including Zidovudine, or AZT, but all have limited uses.
"The question is: When do scientists take that next step?" one official said. "When do we get the proper compound to attack the root disease?"
Calling that situation a "sad fact," Shalala said, "We cannot achieve our goal unless we start filling that pipeline with promising compounds. That is the purpose of the new panel."
by CNB