Antiviral

A major advance in treating hepatitis C appears to be on the horizon. Researchers reported Wednesday that combining two antiviral medications was effective in stopping the infection in some patients who were not helped by the traditional treatment. Progress in fighting hepatitis C infection is of high importance because millions of Americans have the virus. However, the standard treatment with the medication interferon, while effective in many people, is linked to severe side effects.

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it will announce today a multiyear, $45-million joint venture with Eastman Kodak to test and develop second-generation drugs to combat an array of viral infections. Researchers in the program also plan to study new biomedical compounds aimed at slowing the aging process by combating viral diseases related to old age, said ICN Chairman and Chief Executive Milan Panic. But an ICN spokesman cautioned that the work will not focus on producing "the fountain of youth."

Pharmacies are bracing for an increased demand for antiviral medications even as health officials warned that the drugs, designed for treating and preventing influenza, should be used judiciously.

A milder than usual U.S. flu season is masking a growing concern about widespread resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu and what that means for the nation's preparedness in case of a dangerous pandemic flu. Tamiflu, the most commonly used influenza antiviral and the mainstay of the federal government's emergency drug stockpile, no longer works for the dominant flu strain circulating in much of the country, government officials said this week.

A strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus is showing resistance to Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that countries around the world are now stockpiling to fend off the looming threat, researchers said. They urged drug manufacturers to make more effective versions of Relenza, another antiviral that is also known to be effective in battling the much-feared H5N1. Relenza is inhaled.

As symptoms of depression go, there is none much clearer than having thoughts of suicide. But a spate of recent announcements from federal health officials suggests a surprising new interpretation of suicidal fantasies and the depression they are thought to signal: Sometimes, sadness, anxiety and self-destructive thoughts are not symptoms but side effects -- of medicine.

Indiscriminate use of antiviral medications to prevent and treat influenza could ease the way for drug-resistant strains of the novel H1N1 virus, or swine flu, to emerge, public health officials warn -- making the fight against a pandemic that much harder. Already, a handful of cases of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 have been reported this summer, and there is no shortage of examples of misuse of the antiviral medications, experts say. People often fail to complete a full course of the drug, according to a recent British report -- a scenario also likely to be occurring in the U.S. and one that encourages resistance.

Daily doses of a new antiviral agent during the influenza season can significantly reduce the number of new cases of infection, researchers report in today's New England Journal of Medicine. A team headed by Dr. Frederick G. Hayden of the University of Virginia enrolled 1,559 healthy adults in the study, giving half the drug, oseltamivir, and half a placebo for six weeks during flu season. They found that those receiving the drug were 74% to 82% less likely to contract the flu.

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday that the Belgian health ministry has authorized the company to market the antiviral drug Virazole in aerosol form for the treatment of influenza A and B infections in infants and adults. The drug may be used to treat several thousand cases annually, said Jack Sholl, a spokesman for ICN, which makes pharmaceuticals, biotechnology research supplies and medical diagnostic products.

Strains of influenza-A virus resistant to a new anti-viral drug develop rapidly and are apparently transmitted to healthy people who are taking the drug to guard against the viral disease, researchers from the University of Virginia have found. The new study assessed the ability of the drug rimantadine to prevent the transmission of the highly contagious, sometimes fatal disease in households where one family member already had influenza.