Firm Expands Distribution of New AIDS Drug

The free distribution of the promising AIDS drug DDC is being widened to include possibly thousands more patients, a drug company announced Monday.

In June, the Food and Drug Administration gave Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. of Nutley, N.J., permission to provide dideoxycytidine, or DDC, to AIDS patients who cannot take the two currently available drugs to combat the AIDS virus. Those drugs are AZT, the only fully approved AIDS-fighting drug, and DDI, an experimental drug already offered through a similar expanded access program.

About 100 people with AIDS or advanced AIDS-related complex have been receiving DDC through that route, and another 1,000 patients are taking the drug in the more strictly monitored tests required for government drug approval, said Paul Oestreicher, a Hoffmann-La Roche spokesman.

Now, the drug maker is dropping the requirement that a doctor must demonstrate that a patient cannot take DDI before being allowed to start DDC. That move will likely increase the number of patients in the expanded-access program. “It could potentially be thousands more,” Oestreicher said.

So far, the most serious side effect of DDC has been pain in the nerves of the feet and hands. About 10% of patients eventually have to stop therapy because of side effects, Oestreicher said.