Clinical Trials for At-Home Hepatitis C Testing Underway; Home Access Health Anticipates Early 1999 Launch for Second Telemedicine Service.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 21, 1998--Home Access Health Corporation, the leader in telemedicine providing fast and convenient at-home medical testing and consultation, has announced clinical trials are underway for an at-home Hepatitis C test using the same telemedicine technology the company developed for HIV at-home testing.

On June 30th, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Home Access Health's application for an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) which cleared the way for human trials of an at-home Hepatitis C test. As with HIV, the Home Access HCV at-home test will combine telephone registration/pre-test counseling, collection of a blood sample, shipping, laboratory testing, telephone results retrieval and post-test counseling.

At the lab, Home Access Health will run the same tests that are used by doctors and hospitals to identify whether antibodies to Hepatitis C virus are present in a blood sample.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta estimates that over 4.2 million Americans are infected with the Hepatitis C virus making it an epidemic that is four times larger than HIV and AIDS. Home Access Health president Richard A. Quattrocchi said the company's 24 hour a day, seven days a week "telemedicine" technology, which wasn't available at the beginning of the HIV epidemic, would address the key elements in fighting Hepatitis C.

"As with HIV, the best approach to fighting Hepatitis C is getting people counseled, tested and referred for treatment, " said Quattrocchi. "Our telemedicine expertise positions Home Access Health to make a significant contribution in stopping the spread of viral Hepatitis C."

Home Access Health currently markets the only at-home HIV test approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Home Access Express(R) (results in three days) and Home Access(R) (results in seven days) allow people to conveniently and anonymously test for HIV from the privacy of their home with test results clinically proven to be as accurate as HIV tests administered by doctors and hospitals. Data from the Home Access clinical trials has been peer reviewed and published in the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine (Vol. 157, 2/10/97).

Home Access HIV tests are also available by mail by calling 1 800 HIV-TEST and are carried in more than 30,000 drugstores and drug wholesale distributors throughout the US including: AmeriSource, Bindley Western, Bergen Brunswig, Brooks, Cardinal Health, CVS Corporation, Dillons, Drug Emporium, Dominicks, Duane Reade, Eckerd Drug, Farmacias El Amal, Genovese, Giant Eagle, Giant Foods, Kroger, Longs Drug Stores, McKesson Drug Company, Meijer, Osco, Pharmhouse, Phar-Mor, Revco, Rite Aid, Sav-On, ShopKO, Synder, Thrifty PayLess, Vons, Walgreens, and Wal-Mart. More information about Home Access Health can be found at the website www.homeaccess.com.