AEGiS-Reuters: DuPont Says New Compounds Fight Mutant HIV

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

DuPont Says New Compounds Fight Mutant HIV

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday September 28, 1999

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DuPont Pharmaceuticals said Monday that preclinical trials showed four new compounds it is developing were more effective than some existing drugs in fighting mutant strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The new compounds could be important in developing new drugs to help treat HIV-infected people for whom traditional treatments have failed, said DuPont Pharmaceuticals, a unit of chemicals giant DuPont Co.

Because the compounds have not yet been clinically tested, it was not known how effective they were in HIV-infected subjects, it said.

"An important concern in HIV treatment is drug failure due to viral resistance," Susan Erickson-Viitanen, senior director of discovery virology for DuPont, said in a statement.

"The development of new drugs that are effective against common mutations may provide healthcare professionals greater options in caring for HIV-infected patients, particularly those patients who may have few therapeutic options," Erickson-Viitanen said.

The compounds under development are part of a next generation of so-called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) that are found in DuPont's anti-AIDS drug Sustiva, the company said.

The studies showed the compounds had "statistically significant" potency against the K103N mutation of HIV as well as against other mutations found in people who had resisted other NNRTI treatments, the company said.

"While each compound has a slightly different potency profile against the mutant viruses, all were superior in-vitro to currently approved NNTRIs," the company said.

The company made the announcement after the stock market closed. Shares in DuPont fell 18.75 cents to $58.813 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange Monday.
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