ICN-Manufactured Drug to Be Used in AIDS Tests

Virazole, an anti-viral drug manufactured by ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., will be one of several medications to be administered to AIDS patients this summer under a $20-million-a-year U.S. Public Health Service program.

Up to 2,000 patients with acquired immunity deficiency syndrome will receive Virazole and other experimental drugs to evaluate their effectiveness in fighting the deadly disease, Ian MacDonald, acting assistant health secretary, told a Senate committee Wednesday.

After the hearing, MacDonald told reporters that Virazole--also called Ribavirin--will be among the first drugs to be tested under the program. Azidothymidine and the anti-cancer agent Interleukin-2 also will be used in the first round of trials, he said.

“We’re pleased that we are being included among the top three drugs,” said Dominic Luizzi, an ICN vice president and spokesman.

Although Costa Mesa-based ICN has not yet sought formal U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug as a AIDS treatment, clinical trials of Virazole involving 350 pre-AIDS patients are under way at nine medical centers throughout the United States.

ICN recently was chastised by the FDA for making false and misleading claims about Virazole in press kits distributed following the drug’s approval in January as a treatment for an infant respiratory ailment.