NEWPORT PHARMACEUTICALS EXPANDING MAIL ORDER BUSINESS

NEWPORT PHARMACEUTICALS EXPANDING MAIL ORDER BUSINESS with the acquisition of mail service prescription drug provider Delivered Pharmacy Services from that firm's parent company, Lincoln National Administrative Services. Newport announced Aug. 14 that it will make the acquisition through its mail service prescription drug subsidiary, America's Pharmacy. Newport will pay $ 900,000 plus future payments based on performance of the Chicago-based firm.

DPS, which has estimated annual revenues of $ 6.5 mil., provides drug plans to Lincoln National in the mid-sized group health market. Under the purchase agreement, America's Pharmacy will become sole provider of drug plans to Lincoln National's clients through 1994, Newport said.

In April 1987, Newport entered the mail order field with the $ 12 mil. purchase of America's Pharmacy from Caremark. Since then, the Newport Beach, California-based firm has ended U.S./U.K. research and clinical trials on its lone pharmaceutical product, the immunomodulating agent Isoprinosine. FDA rejected Newport's NDA for Isoprinosine as a treatment for AIDS in 1985.

Newport, which has retained U.S. marketing rights to the drug, also said Aug. 14 that it is "presently evaluating the data gathered by its Scandinavian licensee, AB Leo Pharmaceutical Products, in connection with a six-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled study examining the efficiency of . . . Isoprinosine in pre-AIDS patients." The company said it would again seek FDA marketing approval for the drug if its data analysis confirms Leo's preliminary finding that Isoprinosine helps to prevent the onset of AIDS in HIV-infected patients.