Had ‘Favorable’ Response to Controversial Drug : Patient in French AIDS Test Dies

French doctors today announced the death of one of the first AIDS patients to receive an innovative treatment announced at a dramatic news conference last month.

The AIDS victim, whose name was withheld, died Saturday night at Laennec Hospital after about three weeks of treatment, Dr. Phillipe Even said.

He said that the patient had been suffering serious lung and brain infections when admitted to the hospital and that the death occurred despite a “biologically favorable” response to treatment with the drug cyclosporine.

He said that other patients receiving the experimental treatment were responding “satisfactorily” and that the treatment would continue at Laennec and be expanded to other French AIDS clinics.

Even also disclosed today that a 38-year-old Frenchman in the terminal stages of AIDS was treated with cyclosporine for two days and died, despite showing a “biological improvement.”

That patient died before a widely publicized news conference Oct. 29 in which Even and two other French doctors announced that their research showed that cyclosporin-A, a well-known drug used to stop the body from rejecting transplanted organs, appeared to inhibit the virus known as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

The three emphasized then that it was not a cure and did not destroy the virus but said the spectacular results made them feel they should announce their findings to the world.

Other researchers had criticized the announcement of the new AIDS treatment because it was based on only eight days of tests on two patients, a 38-year-old man near death when he began receiving the drug Oct. 23, and a 35-year-old woman in the early stage of the virus who began treatment Oct. 21.

Four other AIDS patients received the drug but not long enough to allow conclusions, the doctors said. Over the weekend the hospital announced that the treatment had been extended to other patients.