Abstract

Is Ribavirin Still a Promising Drug? By Naomi Pfeiffer the Fifth International ConferAIDS in Montreal, many who packed the auditorium and overflowed into the hall for the special session on "Therapy: Ribavirin and Other Anti-HIV Drugs" were dismayed at the results of studies on ribavirin. According to investigators, the agent long believed to be promising showed no activity against HIV. Since then, clinical trials of ribavirin have continued both here and abroad, so far with largely equivocal results. Controversy has continued to rage around the issue of how long an experimental drug should be tested until it is deemed clinically useful or discarded. Ribavirin was one of the first treatments for AIDS made available through the AIDS underground. Beginning in 1984, the drug was smuggled in from Mexico, where it is sold over the counter. Although self-medication with ribavirin has declined since zidovudine (Retrovir®) received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 1987, the agent is still said to be in widespread use. Approval of zidovudine, which is still the only drug licensed to combat HIV infection, came in less than four months one of the shortest approval actions on record. Due to a dramatic reduction of