AEGiS-AP: Abbott Labs offers access to experimental AIDS drug: TREATMENT: The drug maker will give away doses of ritonavir to 2,000 people in late stages of AIDS.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Abbott Labs offers access to experimental AIDS drug: TREATMENT: The drug maker will give away doses of ritonavir to 2,000 people in late stages of AIDS.

The Associated Press - 5 Dec 1995

WASHINGTON (AP)--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 U.S. 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 also may get information by fax at (800) 336-2879, by electronic 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.

Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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