§ Mr. Chris SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what monitoring her Department is undertaking on the use of combination therapy of AXT, DDI and Pyridinone for the treatment of HIV infection, as currently being tested in the United States; whether she envisages any trial use being made available in the United Kingdom; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SackvilleWe do not ourselves carry out clinical trials for HIV infection. This is the responsibility of the Medical Research Council. The Department does have an influence on the research programme through a concordat with the MRC.
Recently, there have been reports from the United States that resistance developed to the drugs AZT, DDI and pyridinones renders HIV non-viable. It has been suggested that combination therapy with these three drugs 217W may be an effective treatment for HIV disease. The M RC AIDS therapeutic trials committee, on which the Department of Health is represented, has identified combination therapy as one of a number of priority areas for further research.
So far all the evidence supporting use of this combination of drugs comes from laboratory studies. We do not know what the clinical significance will be. Unfortunately many therapies which are promising in the test tube do not give the hoped-for benefits to patients.