Date: Tue, 22 Nov 1994 09:14:42 -0500 (EST) From: "JOHN FANNING, CDC NAC" Subject: CDC AIDS DAILY SUMMARY 11/22/94 AIDS Daily Summary November 22, 1994 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1994, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ************************************************************ "AIDS Drug Lifts BioChem Shares" "Across the USA: Ohio" "Hemacare Updates Regulatory Status of HIV/AIDS Clinical Research" "GelTex Awarded $2 Million Grant from U.S. Commerce Dept. to Develop Non-Absorbable Therapies for Infectious Diseases" "Free HIV/AIDS Information Available by Fax on World AIDS Day" "A Place at the Table" "Canada's Native Leaders Warn of AIDS Catastrophe" "The Philadelphia AIDS Consortium to Hold Press Conference" "Hydroxurea as an Inhibitor of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Type 1 Replication" CDC Updates OI Prevention Guidelines with Emphasis on Avoiding Exposure" ************************************************************ "AIDS Drug Lifts BioChem Shares" Financial Times (11/22/94) P. 23 BioChem Pharma's stock soared to C$17.25 on Monday, up nine percent on the Toronto stock exchange after the release of promising clinical data for its anti-AIDS drug, 3TC. The results from two separate studies released at a conference in Glasgow, Scotland, found that a combination of 3TC and Wellcome Plc's AZT significantly reduces levels of HIV. BioChem announced Monday that it had renewed its developing and marketing agreement with Glaxo, the UK pharmaceutical company that owns 17 percent of BioChem and has the license to develop and market 3TC. BioChem will receive royalties based on sales of the drug. "Across the USA: Ohio" USA Today (11/22/94) P. 6A An Ohio judge has ruled that Dr. Charles Hull violated federal law when he refused to treat Fred Charon, who had AIDS. "Once you get an AIDS patient in the hospital, you never get him out," a witness testified that Hull said. Hull claimed he did not mean anything derogatory in the statement. "Hemacare Updates Regulatory Status of HIV/AIDS Clinical Research" Business Wire (11/21/94) Hemacare Corp. announced Monday the completion of a virus inactivation study of its manufacturing method for the production of Immupath, an anti-HIV hyperimmune plasma. The results will be sent to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for review and possible lifting of the clinical hold on the company's Phase III investigational new drug application (IND). Immupath has shown potential as an HIV/AIDS treatment in Phase I/II clinical trials. "We are confident that Immupath is safe, based on the results of this study and on thousands of infusions in patients for over three years. However, we have made contingent arrangements by licensing a second virus inactivation method, currently in wide commercial use, to substitute in our manufacturing process if necessary," said Hal I. Lieberman, Hemacare's president and CEO. "GelTex Awarded $2 Million Grant from U.S. Commerce Dept. to Develop Non-Absorbable Therapies for Infectious Diseases" PR Newswire (11/21/94) The U.S. Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has awarded GelTex Pharmaceuticals a $2 million grant to develop non-absorbable therapies for infectious diseases. The basis for GelTex's therapeutic approach is the development of non-absorbable polymers with structures and chemistries that permit selective recognition and binding of target molecules. During the three-year ATP project, GelTex will design non-absorbable polymers intended to selectively bind to and inactivate the protozoan Crytosporidium parvum and human rotavirus. An estimated 5 to 10 percent of people with AIDS develop cryptosporidiosis--an often chronic, severe, and life-threatening disease. Rotavirus is the most frequent cause of diarrhea in children in the United States. ATP helps companies accomplish research and development on precompetive, broad spectrum technologies. "Free HIV/AIDS Information Available by Fax on World AIDS Day" PR Newswire (11/21/94) On World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA), in cooperation with AT&T, will provide an 800 number to provide up-to-date information on HIV/AIDS. "This is a great opportunity for care providers, educators and people living with HIV, who have access to a fax machine, to receive timely, concise information--FREE," said William J. Freeman, executive director of NAPWA. During the 24-hour period, callers will be able to call 1-800-41-NAPWA, follow an automated voice system, and have documents automatically faxed back. Topics included in the service are insurance and benefits information, legal issues, and women's and adolescents' issues. "A Place at the Table" Boston Globe (11/18/94) P. 22 The Boston Living Center is a nonprofit center that offers conversation, companionship, and wholesome food year-round to men and women with AIDS or HIV, write the editors of The Boston Globe. The center's "Celebration of Life" Thanksgiving dinner will be held Nov. 22 at the Hynes Convention Center Ballroom for all people with HIV infection or AIDS, their families, and their friends. The Boston Living Center relies in part on Massachusetts Department of Public Health grants. Some of the center's AIDS services--which can offer hope and minimize hospitalizations--are provided by people who themselves have HIV or AIDS. The state of Massachusetts demonstrates both its character and its fiscal sense in its support of the Boston Living Center, conclude the Globe editors. "Canada's Native Leaders Warn of AIDS Catastrophe" Reuters (11/18/94) Canada's native leaders announced Friday that natives were testing HIV-positive at an alarming rate and that AIDS was threatening to wipe out their people. The leaders urged the Canadian government to help stop the spread of the disease. "AIDS poses a real threat to young natives and possibly the future of native people in this country," said Grand Chief Ovide Mercredi, head of Canada's largest native organization, the Assembly of First Nations. While the number of reported AIDS cases has increased by 35 percent this year, native leaders claimed that the figures do not accurately reflect the problem because they were based on people with full-blown AIDS and not people who are HIV-infected. Chief Mercredi also said that natives receive less AIDS funding than other Canadians and asked that the government allow native communities to administer federal funds themselves to stop the disease before it reaches its full potential. "The Philadelphia AIDS Consortium to Hold Press Conference" PR Newswire (11/18/94) In correlation with several other press conferences being held throughout the state, the Philadelphia AIDS Consortium will hold a press conference on Nov. 28 to address Pennsylvania's failure to fund any services for persons living with HIV/AIDS since July, 1994. Also at issue is the state's failure to supply providers of HIV/AIDS services with either the contract or funds from the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, Public Law 101-381, and funds provided in the state budget as line 106 General Funds. The Consortium will discuss the resulting program failure and increase in human suffering. "Hydroxurea as an Inhibitor of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Type 1 Replication" Science (11/04/94) Vol. 266, No. 5186, P. 801; Lori, Franco; Malykh, Andrei; Cara, Andrea et al Hydroxurea, a drug that has been used for the past 30 years to treat human malignancies, may be a potential candidate for AIDS therapy. Using non-toxic doses of the drug, researcher Franco Lori and colleagues discovered that hydroxurea indirectly inhibits HIV-1 replication. The antiviral effect was achieved in acutely infected primary human lymphocytes, macrophages, and blood cells infected in vivo recovered from AIDS patients. Hydroxurea combined with didanosine (ddI) resulted in a synergistic inhibitory effect without increasing the toxicity. HIV-1 inhibition was irreversible in some cases, even several weeks after suspension of drug treatment. The use of hydroxurea is advantageous in part because its side effects and properties are already known; it is extremely diffusable, entering all tissues with a maximal velocity that appears infinite; and it is a mildly toxic drug that does not cause immunodepression. "CDC Updates OI Prevention Guidelines with Emphasis on Avoiding Exposure" AIDS Alert (11/94) Vol. 9, No. 11, P. 149 Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expect new recommendations for the prophylaxis of opportunistic infections, including the first comprehensive guidelines on how HIV-infected patients can avoid exposure to infectious organisms, to be published by the end of the year. The recommendations are partially based on four unpublished studies which examined the use as prophylaxis of oral ganciclovir for cytomegalovirus (CMV), acyclovir for herpes virus, clarithromycin and rifampin for disseminated mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), and pyrimethamine for toxoplasmosis. The committee in charge of making the recommendations was hesitant to recommend oral ganciclovir for prevention of CMV because there is the threat of creating resistance to the drug and because its average cost is $24,000 a year. The committee proposed the simpler and less expensive solution of encouraging patients to monitor any changes in their field of vision and make regular opthalmologist appointments. "What we hope to end up with is a comprehensive prevention document, initially intended for providers but also translated for patients, so they will be able to do something for themselves, said Dr. Harold Jaffe, director of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS.