AGOURON VIRACEPT USED BY ESTIMATED 30,000 PATIENTS TWO MONTHS AFTER LAUNCH

Agouron has quickly asserted itself in the year-old protease inhibitor market for HIV/AIDS therapies, gaining 30,000 Viracept users in a little over two months of marketing, CEO Peter Johnson told analysts at a Paine Webber conference in New York June 4. The figure puts Agouron's product at over one-third of the market share of Merck's year-old competitor Crixivan, which Johnson estimated currently has about 85,000 patients. Johnson noted that less than 20% of HIV/AIDS patients receive therapy of any kind