Herpes drug to be tested

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 21

Herpes drug to be tested

PA Auckland A new drug to treat victims of A.I.D.S. and genital herpes may soon be available. An Auckland company, Douglas Pharmaceuticals, will apply to the Health Department within a month to have the drug, Inosiplex, registered in New Zealand. The company’s medical director, Dr Eric Stephens, said the drug was one of the first generation of new compounds designed to manipulate immune disorders. “The whole area is regarded as a breakthrough,” he said. Even though the department could take a year or more to approve the registration, the drug might be available . for special patients on a “one-off basis,” Dr Stephens said. The drug was registered

in the United Kingdom only, but, Dr Stephens said, the United States was “well on the way” to introducing it. The drug works by restoring the patient’s natural immune balance which is destroyed by the disease. A.I.D.S. patients can die from a variety of illnesses contracted because of their lowered immunity, while a similar disease in other people would not usually prove fatal. Dr Stephens said that although the drug would probably be expensive, it would not be as costly as the antiherpes treatment, Acylovir, which is now available in New Zeland for 590.87 for 25 tablets.

A.I.D.S. patients require prolonged continuous treatment with the drug, while herpes sufferers use it in cycles.