Wall Street Journal - February 25, 2005
Marilyn Chase at marilyn.chase@wsj.com

A U.S.-based researcher working for GlaxoSmithKline PLC of London offered data from a human clinical trial of the company's experimental antiviral drug, called 873140. James Demarest, group leader of Glaxo's clinical virology department in Research Triangle Park, N.C., said the drug, which blocks entry of the AIDS virus into human cells, suppressed blood levels of the AIDS virus in 31 patients by about 98% after just 10 days of treatment, compared with a control group.

The GSK drug, which has received fast-track status from the Food and Drug Administration, is one of a new class of drugs known as CCR5 receptor blockers. Similar drugs are being developed by Pfizer Inc. and Schering-Plough Corp. These drugs aim at a new target: the main "co-receptor" or portal through which the virus gains entry into human cells. The Glaxo compound was licensed from Ono Pharmaceutical Co. of Japan, which retains certain Asian marketing rights.

The agility of the AIDS virus in developing resistance to existing types of AIDS drugs makes new classes of drugs "absolutely critical," said Graeme Moyle, associate director of HIV research at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. Glaxo's Dr. Demarest said his company's compound should enter Phase 3 efficacy studies later this year in hundreds of patients.

Separately, details emerged about the New York man afflicted with rapid AIDS and with multiple drug resistance. The patient retains some sensitivity to two drugs, not one as widely believed, according to data released here by David Ho and Martin Markowitz of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City.

Although resistant to three classes of existing AIDS drugs, the man's virus responds to enfuvirtide, sold as Fuzeon, and also to efavirenz, also known as Sustiva. Dr. Ho added the patient is being treated with a cocktail including "a huge number of drugs." The data were presented in a poster presentation in Boston, and are also being submitted to a scientific journal.

Dr. Ho and Dr. Markowitz said they have checked for genetic factors in the patient that might explain his rapid descent into severe AIDS, but they so far haven't found any. But against a tide of skepticism here, Dr. Ho insisted on the importance of his finding of multidrug resistance, and rapid AIDS, in a man with a history of methamphetamine use and multiple partners. The man's viruses penetrate cells through both the CCR5 portal and a second portal called CXCR4, linked to aggressive AIDS.

Still, one San Francisco activist, John James, editor and publisher of the newsletter AIDS Treatment News, said, "It's something to watch, [but] I'm not so worried now," especially since the virus seems to respond to two drugs. "Only additional investigations will reveal whether this is an isolated case or not."

---- Jeanne Whalen contributed to this article.

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