Word: ddi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...life-span, but not everyone can tolerate its side effects, which may include nausea and severe anemia. Now, after billions of dollars of research and constant pressure from AIDS activists, the Food and Drug Administration has bypassed some of its usual requirements to approve another medication, didanosine, known as DDI...
Developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, DDI resembles AZT in that it interferes with replication of the AIDS virus. Whether it will extend the life of patients remains unknown, but it has been shown to boost levels of disease- fighting T cells. Last week's approval, granted with unusual speed, will enable doctors to prescribe the drug to those who cannot tolerate AZT -- about half of AIDS patients...
Late last week, however, the FDA bucked its own bureaucratic tradition when one of its advisory committees recommended that a similar drug made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, called DDI, or dideoxyinosine, be put on the market even though it has not undergone the agency's standard testing. While the decision heartened many AIDS organizations, some desperate patients have resorted to an immediate alternative: black-market DDC. Underground AIDS groups are buying the drug in bulk directly from chemical companies, which manufacture it for use in laboratory experiments. The clandestine suppliers then weigh out and package the counterfeit pills and sell...
...because some AIDS victims could benefit from the new drug, he added that the company should release it now, before it decides exactly how much better or worse ddI is than AZT and what the proper dosage of ddI should...
...said in a prepared statement that inaddition to Bristol Myers, it will be pressuringboth the FDA, because the agency is the ultimatelicensor of ddI, and Harvard, because many ddIresearchers are University affiliates. "We callupon [them] to take an early look at the data fromtheir phase II clinical trials...