THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995            TAG: 9512280343
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Short :   33 lines

3-DAY YEAST-INFECTION DRUG TO GO ON SHELVES

Women will soon be able to buy a nonprescription medicine for yeast infections that takes just three days to work instead of seven.

Femstat 3 was switched from prescription-only to an over-the-counter medicine by the Food and Drug Administration last week. Other OTC treatments for vaginal yeast infections require seven days.

Manufactured by Switzerland's Roche Holding Ltd., the drug will be sold in the United States by Procter & Gamble. The company said Wednesday that Femstat would be on store shelves by spring, but it had not yet set a price.

Femstat contains the antifungal agent butoconazole nitrate, available by prescription since 1986. Studies of 600 women showed Femstat worked as well as the leading seven-day brand, Monistat 7, Procter & Gamble said.

Women with persistent yeast infections or other complicating diseases may still need the seven-day drug, an FDA spokeswoman said.

The FDA cautions that women should take a nonprescription remedy only if a doctor previously diagnosed a yeast infection and they are experiencing recurrent symptoms.

KEYWORDS: FDA

by CNB