3rd Victim of AIDS Receiving Test Drug Dies

A third AIDS patient undergoing experimental treatment in France with the drug cyclosporine has died, the patient’s doctor announced Tuesday.

Dr. Max Micoud identified the patient as a 27-year-old man who had been treated with the drug for six days before his death on Saturday.

On Monday, doctors in Paris revealed that a 38-year-old male AIDS patient treated with the drug also had died Saturday.

In subsequent interviews, one of the doctors who began the cyclosporine program, Philippe Even, said that another patient had died after two days of treatment with cyclosporine in very early clinical tests last month, before the treatment was made public at a news conference.

But Even said that results from the treatment of nine other patients were promising and the program was being expanded to five other French hospitals. He said the number of patients would be increased to about 20.

The hospitals cited by Even as the centers for expanded research on AIDS--acquired immune deficiency syndrome--did not involve the Grenoble hospital, with which Micoud is associated.

In a statement issued in Grenoble, Micoud said he decided to try cyclosporine on a terminally ill AIDS patient after hearing of the “spectacular biological results” announced by Even and two colleagues at the Oct. 29 news conference in Paris.

Cyclosporine has been used for several years to prevent rejection in organ transplants.