ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 5, 1995 TAG: 9512050076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Abbott Laboratories next month will begin giving away doses of its experimental AIDS drug ritonavir to 2,000 people worldwide who are in late stages of the disease.
Americans will compete for the drug through a lottery and can sign up immediately, Abbott announced Monday. Outside of the United States, Abbott is still picking countries to participate, but patients overseas will be chosen by physicians instead of through a lottery.
Abbott has not yet decided how the drug will be divided among countries.
Ritonavir is one of a powerful new class of AIDS drugs called protease inhibitors, which appear to lower levels of the AIDS virus in blood and boost the immune system.
The Food and Drug Administration routinely allows dying patients, with no other hope, to use experimental drugs. But protease inhibitors are so hard to make that Merck & Co. and Hoffman-La Roche last summer chose lotteries as the fairest way to offer them. Several thousand U.S. AIDS patients received those two protease inhibitors.
Abbott said at the time it didn't have enough ritonavir to participate, but Monday said it had come up with enough.
AIDS patients with CD4 immune cell counts of no more than 50 are eligible. Americans may call (800)414-AIDS to sign up. They may get information by fax at (800)336-2879, by e-mail at ritonavirpond.com and on the Internet at http://www.pond .com/ritonavir.
Outside of the United States, patients should ask their doctors to alert them once Abbott decides what countries can participate, said spokesman Doug Petkus.
Roche's protease inhibitor, saquinavir, is believed near FDA approval. Merck and Abbott are still studying their versions.
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