Bioanalytical Systems Announces New Method for Monitoring Multiple HIV Drugs.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 16, 1998-- Bioanalytical Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:BASI) announced today that it has successfully developed a quick and accurate method for concurrently monitoring multiple HIV protease and reverse transcriptase inhibiting drugs in blood samples. The proprietary method is now available as part of the BAS menu of contract analytical services.

Combination or "cocktail" therapies, where different drugs are administered to the patient simultaneously, are being used more frequently in the treatment of disease. In AIDS treatment, mixed drugs have dramatically improved survival rates among HIV-infected patients.

"We expect that concurrent analysis of multiple drugs in combination therapies and drug interaction studies will continue to drive bioanalytical outsourcing," said Pete Kissinger, Ph.D., BAS president and CEO. "It has clearly contributed to the rapid growth of our Analytics division. Dr. Ron Shoup, president of BAS Analytics, and his team have done an excellent job with the new assay. We are already able to process more than one thousand samples per week."

Drugs from different manufacturers are frequently dosed in combination. Several major pharmaceutical companies recognized the potential benefit of this effort and cooperated with BAS by contributing their reference standard drugs. Drugs analyzed in this first phase of method development include indinavir (Merck), delavirdine (Pharmacia & Upjohn), ritonavir (Abbott Laboratories), nelfinavir (Agouron Pharmaceuticals) and saquinavir (Hoffman LaRoche). Research is underway to develop methods for analyzing additional drug combinations.

The new method offers potential benefits to drug developers, physicians, and clinics. Pharmaceutical companies searching for more potent AIDS drugs with more tolerable dosing can benefit by avoiding adverse reactions and exploring synergies among drugs, including those still in development. Physicians participating in new HIV drug clinical trials can use the method to pre-screen patient candidates for a prior history of treatment using any of these five drugs. Also, clinics can monitor the components of routine combination therapies to optimize the cocktail mix for maximum benefit to the patient.

The method uses LC/MS, a high-resolution analytical technique that is rapidly gaining acceptance among pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies. Blood components are separated by liquid chromatography (LC) and detected and quantified by mass spectrometry (MS). BAS Instruments division manufactures and markets liquid chromatographs to the pharmaceutical industry.

BAS serves pharmaceutical and medical device industries, clinical laboratories, and the basic research community with a wide variety of contract research services, research equipment, and diagnostic kits.