DaunoXome therapy cuts cost of treating Kaposi's sarcoma.

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 9, 1996--NeXstar Pharmaceuticals Inc., (NASDAQ:NXTR) announced Tuesday that an independent cost-analysis, presented at the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver, has shown that DaunoXome therapy costs almost $1000 less per course of treatment than does the conventional three-drug therapy for advanced HIV-associated Kaposi's sarcoma.

DaunoXome, NeXstar Pharmaceuticals' liposomal formulation of the anticancer agent daunorubicin, is approved in 15 countries as first-line therapy for advanced HIV-associated Kaposi's sarcoma. The drug was launched in the United States in May 1996.

Speaking at the conference, Dr. Gale E. Savage, M.D., clinical manager in health economics with S&FA Inc., discussed the findings of a pharmacoeconomic analysis in which the total cost of therapy was compared for DaunoXome and the three-drug regimen of Adriamycin, bleomycin and vincristine (ABV).

Using data from NeXstar Pharmaceuticals' phase III clinical trial, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration used to approve DaunoXome, Savage found that while the cost of anticancer drugs was slightly higher for the DaunoXome arm compared to the ABV arm of the study, that the total cost for a standard course of therapy - eight cycles of therapy given over 16 weeks - was $974 less, or approximately 10 percent lower, for DaunoXome.

"Besides its reduced toxicity with regard to neuropathy and alopecia, among other clinical benefits, DaunoXome is also a more cost-effective alternative to combination therapy," said Savage.

Savage's pharmacoeconomic analysis included the costs of the anticancer drugs, drug administration expenses, and the costs of monitoring and treating side effects associated with the two different therapies. Using this four-factor model, Savage found that DaunoXome was less than half as expensive to administer as ABV therapy to patients.

And while some DaunoXome patients required the administration of more growth factors to counteract neutropenia, the slight increase in cost resulting from the use of growth factors by the DaunoXome group as a whole was more than compensated by a drop in the costs associated with monitoring for side-effects that must be done during ABV therapy.

NeXstar Pharmaceuticals is an integrated pharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of products to treat life-threatening diseases. The company currently markets two drugs, AmBisome and DaunoXome. The company has headquarters in Boulder; research, development and manufacturing facilities in San Dimas, Calif.; Antwerp, Belgium; Lakewood, Colo., and Boulder; and marketing subsidiaries worldwide.

Contact: NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Boulder, Colo.

Joseph Alper, 303/546-7717