News From the Community Research Initiative

The Community Research Initiative (CRI), a project of the PWA Coalition in New York, continues to do some of the best work anywhere in furthering AIDS research. (For background on the CRI, see AIDS Treatment News number 38, page 3.)

The CRI now has a $300,000. contract with LyphoMed, the manufacturer of pentamidine, to conduct a 200-patient study of aerosol pentamidine. The protocol for this research was revised to support the FDA-approved design used in San
Francisco General Hospital, so that the CRI study can contribute toward FDA approval of aerosol pentamidine, which
will make it more accessible for patients.

The CRI has also received $51,000 from People Taking Action Against AIDS, a new fund-raising organization, for a
study of egg lecithin lipids (generic AL 721) as an AIDS/ARC treatment. A parallel arm of the study, funded separately,
will use an injectable form of the lipids. Dr. Jeffrey Askenazi will be the principal investigator in this study, with Dr. Joseph Sonnabend as co-investigator.

Study design and funding negotiations are also proceeding for studies on: Ampligen, Erythropoietin, Cryptosporidium Milk- -Immune Globulin, Methionine Enkephalin (MEK), DHPG as CMV prophylaxis, and an Antabuse/Imuthiol Monitoring Project.