Two for AIDS: new drug and new patent.

Two for AIDS: New drug and new patent

* Federal officials announced last week that the anti-cancer drug trimetrexate has been approved for limited use in treating Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a serious infection often associated with AIDS. It is the first AIDS-related drug to be approved under the Food and Drug Administration's drug evaluation process called treatment IND (investigational new drug), an accelerated procedure adopted last year to provide experimental drugs to patients with life-threatening diseases (SN:3/21/87, p.189). Because of its toxicity, trimetrexate must be given with the drug leucovorin, which protects cells from trimetrexate exposure. Although drugs against the infection are already available, researchers have considered trimetrexate a less toxic or more effective alternative if used in conjunction with leucovorin.

* In a decision that could mean big bucks and have wide-reaching effects in AIDS research, Harvard University was granted a patent last week for commercial use of the protein gp120, found in the wall of the AIDS virus. Although gp120 is a naturally occurring substance, its isolation in 1984 by Harvard scientists made it patentable under current laws. Many of the tests and vaccines for AIDS now being developed by researchers depend on gp 120 as part of the development process. The patent, however, does not extend to the use of gp120 for research-only purposes.