LA JOLLA, Calif., Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,
(Nasdaq-NNM: AGPH) today announced that it will proceed promptly to assemble
and file with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a New Drug
Application (NDA) seeking approval to commence marketing of the company's HIV
protease inhibitor VIRACEPT(TM) (nelfinavir mesylate).  The company's decision
was based upon an analysis of initial results from three pivotal clinical
trials of VIRACEPT.  Agouron said that submission of the NDA for VIRACEPT
should be completed not later than in the first quarter of calendar 1997.
    Since February 1996, VIRACEPT has been the subject of three clinical
trials involving a total of more than 700 subjects.  Two alternative doses of
VIRACEPT have been administered as monotherapy or in combination either with
d4T or with the two-drug combination of AZT plus 3TC.  Primary efficacy
endpoints in the trials are decreases in plasma HIV RNA ("viral load") and
increases in CD4+ T cells.  Agouron's decision to submit an NDA for VIRACEPT
was based upon an analysis of results from the first four months of treatment
in these six-month studies.  Results from these clinical trials will be made
public in detail within the next few months, either at a scientific meeting or
at a public FDA meeting.
    "We are obliged to disclose our decision to proceed with preparing and
filing the VIRACEPT NDA because of the materially important role of this
decision in the affairs of Agouron," said Peter Johnson, Agouron's president
and chief executive officer.  "Strongly encouraged by the preliminary results
from pivotal trials, we will now undertake a number of pre-launch activities
which assume the timely submission and approval of a VIRACEPT NDA.  However,
we are anxious to remind all those interested in VIRACEPT that there can be no
assurance that any such approval from FDA will be forthcoming."
    VIRACEPT is being developed by Agouron in collaboration with the
pharmaceutical division of Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT).  JT, a diversified company
with annual revenues in excess of $30 billion and assets exceeding $18
billion, entered the pharmaceutical business in 1987.  In the field of ethical
pharmaceuticals, JT is currently engaged in clinical development of various
drugs, including those for the treatment of dimentia, asthma, and angina
pectoris, and has launched a 5HT3 antagonist as an anti-emetic in Japan in
1994.  JT presently conducts drug discovery research at its new Central
Pharmaceutical Research Institute in Osaka, Japan.
    Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a pioneer and leader in the development
and application of technologies that enable the atom by atom design of novel
synthetic drugs based upon the molecular structures of target proteins which
play key roles in human disease.  Agouron is currently applying these
technologies to the design and development of novel drugs for treatment of
cancer, AIDS and other serious diseases.

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