LA JOLLA, Calif., April 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(Nasdaq-NMM: AGPH) today announced results from an ongoing study in which HIV
remained below quantifiable levels in both the plasma and lymphoid tissue of
chronically infected patients tested after one year of combination therapy
consisting of VIRACEPT(R) (nelfinavir mesylate), Retrovir(R) (AZT), and
Epivir(TM) (3TC).
    In the small clinical study carried out at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research
Center in New York, HIV fell below quantifiable levels in the plasma of all
ten patients who received the VIRACEPT combination continuously for 56 weeks.
HIV was also below quantifiable levels in lymphoid tissue in eight of nine of
these patients who were tested after 11-15 months of treatment.  These
findings, which correlate suppression of virus by VIRACEPT combination therapy
in peripheral plasma with comparable effects in lymphoid tissue, are the
subject of a presentation today at the Tenth International Conference on
Antiviral Research (ICAR) held in Atlanta, Georgia by Martin Markowitz, M.D.,
Staff Investigator at the Aaron Diamond.
    "These data are very promising and suggest that when aggressively treated,
HIV infection may be effectively controlled over the long term for most
patients," said Dr. Markowitz.
    The most commonly observed adverse event of moderate or greater severity
in clinical trials of VIRACEPT was diarrhea which was generally controlled
with over-the-counter medications.
    Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an integrated pharmaceutical firm
committed to discovery, development, manufacturing, and marketing of small-
molecule drugs engineered to inactivate proteins which play key roles in
cancer, AIDS, and other serious diseases.
    VIRACEPT(R) is a registered trademark of Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Retrovir(R) is a registered trademark of Glaxo-Wellcome, Inc.  Epivir(TM) is a
trademark of Glaxo-Wellcome, Inc.

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