POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR USING IL-2A majority of the 50 doctors who responded to a poll supportthe use of interleukin-2 (IL-2) to treat metastatic kidneycancer. The National Kidney Cancer Association conducted thepoll after the Food and Drug Administration last summer didnot approve Cetus Corp.'s IL-2 to treat metastatic kidneycancer.

More than 80 percent of the responding physicians had treatedpatients with IL-2 and 68 percent of them said the FDA shouldapprove IL-2 for such cancers despite the drug's side effects.

TAIWANESE COMPANY BUYS ECOGEN SHARES

Ecogen Inc. of Langhorne, Pa., said Tuesday that Jia NonEnterprise Co. Ltd. of Taiwan bought 199,156 Ecogen commonshares for $500,000, or $2.51 per share.

Jia Non last March acquired 150,602 Ecogen (NASDAQ:EECN)shares for $500,000, or $3.32 each. The share price in bothinstances represented a 20 percent premium to the stock'srecent market price.

COLLAGEN CAN'T EXPLAIN VOLATILE STOCK

Collagen Corp. of Palo Alto, Calif., on Tuesday issued astatement saying there was no good business reason for therecent volatility in Collagen's stock price and increased tradingvolume. The stock closed Tuesday down $1, to $19 a share on avolume of 199,000 shares, after falling $2 on Monday. Collagen(NASDAQ:CGEN) said that ABC-TV's 20/20 had scheduled to airthis Friday a story on safety issues regarding the use of itsinjectable collagen.

PANEL OPPOSES MANDATORY AIDS TEST

Pregnant women in areas where AIDS is prevalent should beoffered, but not required, to be tested for the humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV), said a panel of experts enlistedby the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C. The panelopposed screening newborns for HIV antibodies becauseexisting tests are unreliable so soon after birth and thatmandatory screening of infants would be "tantamount toinvoluntary maternal screening."

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.