AEGiS-Reuters: Drugmaker Plans Human Trials of New HIV Treatment

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Drugmaker Plans Human Trials of New HIV Treatment

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 11, 2001


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. said on Tuesday it plans human trials next year of a new treatment against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, describing it as a potential "breakthrough" medicine.

Merck, speaking to analysts and investors in a meeting at company headquarters in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, said the experimental drug works by blocking the integrase enzyme.

The company added that its longtime development of a preventative vaccine against the virus continues to make progress, and the company is hopeful of its eventual effectiveness.

Merck also said that it is conducting late stage, or Phase III, trials of MK-869--a treatment for long-term depression that is also being studied to treat nausea in patients on chemotherapy.

The drug, which blocks the so-called Substance P enzyme, formerly worked only for short-term treatment of depression but was reformulated to work for longer-term treatment, company officials said.


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