PRAXIS <PRAX> AIDS DRUG TO GO INTO WIDER TESTS
Praxis Pharmaceuticals Inc, which owns
worldwide licensing rights to the promising AIDS treatment
AL721, said large scale tests of the drug are planned for this
summer in the United States.
    Arnold Lippa, Praxis' president, said Praxis will test the
drug in a few hundred patients with full-blown AIDS, in those
with AIDS-related complex, a precursor to AIDS, and in more
patients with swollen lymph glands but no other AIDS symptoms.
    Praxis reported a net loss of 2,186,000 dlrs for the year
ended June 30, 1986. Lippa said the firm has about two mln dlrs
left from its public offering in January 1985.
    But Lippa expects to "easily spend" five to 10 mln dlrs in
these new clinical trials. He said the Beverly-Hills,
Calif.-based company is preparing a private offering and
discussing ventures with other pharmaceutical firms to help
finance the cost of the trials.
    As another mark of the interest in AL721, Anthony S. Fauci,
who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Disease, said the government will begin testing AL721 in its
AIDS treatment evaluation units in June.
    A spokeswoman said the study will be "small" and will
establish the drug's toxicity. She said the study will be
"expedited" to allow the next phase of testing to proceed
rapidly.
    These plans follow the completion of a small-scale test of
the drug's effectiveness in eight patients with AIDS-related
lymphadenopathy--swollen lymph glands, at St. Lukes/Roosevelt
Hospital in New York, and another study of 14 AIDS patients in
Israel, where the drug was developed.
   
 Reuter
