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New flu drug sounds too good to be true
In this story:
September 29, 1997
Web posted at: 5:01 p.m. EDT (2101 GMT)From Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland
SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- A flu epidemic can kill as many as 20,000 Americans a year, while millions of others suffer from symptoms ranging from headaches and fever to muscle aches and coughing.
CNN's Rhonda Rowland Reports
But an experimental drug may make the misery of the flu a thing of the past. It is code-named GS4104, and it sounds almost too good to be true.
Not only does it cut the duration of a typical flu bout in half, but after taking the pill, patients start feeling better within hours. And studies suggest that it may be the first flu medicine that can actually prevent the flu from developing.
"This compound has the potential on the health of people, a big impact economically and on the lost days at work, and a big impact on the convenience," says Norbert Bischofberger, a drug researcher at Gilead Sciences. "We won't have to be dealing as much with the flu as we had to."
The latest study done by Gilead, the manufacturer of the drug, shows that unlike other flu medications, GS4104 works on both strains of the virus: influenza A and influenza B.
It works by preventing the flu virus from attacking or infecting cells, essentially crippling the virus. It not only works fast, but also appears to have few side-effects. Some study volunteers said they experienced mild nausea.
GS4104 treats flu and prevents it
Gilead believes that the drug may be useful not just for treating flu, but for preventing it.
"For instance, your co-worker starts to cough and starts feeling sick and goes home with the flu," says Bishofberger. "In that case, you can reasonably assume that you have been exposed. In that case, it would be in your best benefit to go on ... (preventive) treatment."
There are other treatments for the flu, but they only work against influenza A and must be injected. Before the company can apply for FDA approval and market the drug for general use, trials to determine its safety and effectiveness must be completed.
There is another experimental medicine that appears to work against both strains of influenza. It is called GG167 or zanamivir, and comes in powder form that must be inhaled. It appears to work best in people with especially bad symptoms or taken soon after symptoms are experienced.
A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that it reduced a typical flu episode from seven to four days. But GG167, which was developed by Glaxo Wellcome, has not been shown to prevent the flu as GS4104 has.
2 other drugs must be injected
Two other flu medications are already on the market. One is known generically as amantadine and the other is rimantadine. Both are effective against influenza A, which causes about two-thirds of all flu cases in the U.S., but they don't work against influenza B and they must be injected.
GS 4104 will be studied this flu season, and if Gilead is successful in getting FDA approval in the next year, doctors may be able to prescribe it during the next flu season.
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