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| |  ACCOLATE, New Asthma Drug, Now Available Nationwide WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 8, 1996 -- ACCOLATE(R) (zafirlukast), a new asthma drug cleared in September by the Food and Drug Administration, is now available by prescription to asthma sufferers nationwide. Discovered and marketed by Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, ACCOLATE is a tablet designed to be taken orally twice a day for the preventative and chronic treatment of asthma in adults and children 12 years of age and older. Nobel Prize-winner Bengt Samuelsson discovered leukotrienes, natural substances in the body that can contribute to asthma symptoms. ACCOLATE, a leukotriene receptor antagonist (LTRA), works by blocking the effects of leukotrienes. ACCOLATE is the first LTRA to be cleared by the FDA and marks the introduction of the first new class of asthma drugs in the United States in over 20 years. "ACCOLATE is different from all other drugs currently available to treat asthma," said Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D., Parker B. Francis Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and one of the drug's investigators. "By targeting leukotrienes, ACCOLATE decreases asthma symptoms in a very specific and unique way. This medical advance places us on the threshold of a new way to treat asthma." Asthma continues to be a problem in the United States. In recent years, asthma prevalence and deaths have increased. According to the National Institutes of Health, asthma cases in the United States increased 34 percent from 1983 to 1993. The prevalence is higher in urban settings and large cities. Statistics show that asthma is more prevalent among African-Americans than white Americans. According to 1990 National Institutes of Health statistics, 4.4 percent of African-Americans suffer from asthma compared to 4 percent of white Americans. Asthma symptoms can include wheezing, coughing, a feeling of pressure in the chest, and difficulty breathing. In some patients, symptoms may be debilitating or even life threatening. These symptoms can occur at any time, day or night. Though not a cure for asthma, ACCOLATE may help asthma sufferers control the disease. ACCOLATE is not a rescue medication and should not be used on an as needed basis to treat acute episodes of asthma. U.S. prescribing information lists the most frequently occurring adverse events in trials with ACCOLATE as headache, infection, and nausea. For these adverse events, there was no statistical difference between ACCOLATE and placebo. Dr. Drazen, Dr. Samuelsson and other top international scientists gathered in the United Kingdom in October to review the medical research which has led to the development of ACCOLATE. "Rarely can scientific achievement be attributed to a single individual or an isolated observation in the laboratory," said the meeting's co-chairman, Professor Sven Erik Dahlen, Karolinska Institute, Sweden. "Scientific discovery is a path traveled by many dedicated figures. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the search for leukotrienes which now heralds an exciting era for new therapies in the treatment of asthma." Zeneca Inc. is a $2.8 billion bioscience business with approximately 6,000 employees in 53 locations in 24 states. Zeneca Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK-based Zeneca Group PLC (NYSE: ZEN), a major, $7.6 billion international bioscience business engaged in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of ethical (prescription) pharmaceutical, agricultural, and specialty products and the supply of health care services.
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