MEDICAL UPDATE: New Drug from Japan

MEDICAL UPDATE: New Drug from Japan

Being Alive Newsletter, Being Alive/Los Angeles - August 1993
Mark Katz, MD and reported by Jim Stoecker

OPC-8212 is a drug that has been manufactured and marketed in Japan for three years. It has been used as treatment for congestive heart failure and the FDA may soon approve OPC-8212 for that purpose in this country.

In studying the drug in Japan, researchers noted some anti-HIV effects. Now the drug will be studied specifically for its antiviral and immune boosting properties. Since it was tried on over 17,000 patients while being developed as a heart drug, we have good safety data on OPC-8212; we now need to determine its anti-HIV efficacy.

Locally, UCLA is the site of a 12 week open-label (i.e., everyone gets the drug) study. This first study is limited to people without symptoms and with CD4 over 300. For more information, call UCLA at 310.206.6414.

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