Experimental HPA-23 Being Used on Actor Will Be Available in U.S. Soon

WASHINGTON — An experimental drug used in France against AIDS will soon be available in the United States for treating victims of the deadly disease, a U.S. official said today.

C. McClain Haddow, chief of staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, said that the French manufacturer of the drug known as HPA-23 has filed an application to test the drug in this country and that it could become available in the United States in two to three weeks.

New regulations announced by the health department Thursday will speed up the government’s drug-approval process. The rules also permit physicians to use experimental drugs while they are being tested.

Doctors will be able to administer the drugs being investigated to patients in desperate need of treatment, such as those suffering from the incurable acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

“That will now allow for the use of HPA-23 in the United States,” Haddow said in a television interview.

But he said the effectiveness of HPA-23 is unknown.

“We should emphasize that there is to date no evidence that it has any therapeutic effect whatever but it will be provided under compassionate uses,” he said.