Wellcome fails to calm City fears

WELLCOME'S attempt to regain the initiative over the effectiveness of its AZT anti-Aids drug backfired yesterday after a stormy presentation to the City, writes Gail Counsell.

The meeting was called to cast doubt on the preliminary conclusions of a recent Anglo-French trial that the drug, marketed as Retrovir, was of no use to asymptomatic patients - those who are HIV positive but have not yet developed Aids.

The share price had risen in anticipation of a strong rebuttal. But analysts described the presentation as 'unconvincing' and 'a PR disaster' and the shares dipped sharply before recovering slightly to end down 23p at 698p.

'The net result was very confusing. We won't be in a position to conclude anything until the study is properly published and peer reviewed,' said Jonathan de Pass, a BZW analyst.

Wellcome's main complaint about the Anglo-French Concorde study is that Retrovir was used by some of a group of asymptomatic patients who were not supposed to take the drug until they developed Aids. The group said other larger studies demonstrated the effectiveness of early use of Retrovir.